Holly

Variegated Holly. Taken a few weeks ago. On a bright, sunny day. The blue sky was reflected off the shiny surface of the leaves. I like the way the spiky edges add to the textures. Holly can be male or female. The female plants are the ones that grow the berries.

A formidable hedging plant, it grows slowly but if your not careful it can grow up out of reach. It needs pruning to keep it in shape. And with the sharp pickles it can be painful to trim.

Pud

My friend had keylime pie for afters this evening. It looks delicious and she let me taste it. Very zesty and tasty. I had a slightly uninspired chocolate and vanilla ice cream sundae for my pud. Naughty but nice is the expression I would use. I’m going to have to stop eating ice creams but this hot weather we’ve been having has tempted me. By the way the colour is too yellow in this photo, it was almost fluo green! Or that might be my eyes?

Upside down/ sideways poppies.

I took this photo and realised that it’s been swivelled round somehow. I think is sideways or upside down. So it looks a little odd.

I also like the colours, red, green, pale grey and dark grey. And of course the black in the centre of the flowers, the colours are brilliant in the sunshine. The shapes give it an abstract feeling.

Poppy’s are out!

Last week when I saw these on the local allotment they were hardly in bud. Not anymore! They are glorious. The red pops against the greens. The sunlight splashes down onto the plants and paving. A cool breeze made light shimmer over the heads of the poppies. What a warm sunlit spring it’s been. But we might have a drought!

Auroras again?

I could see an odd colour in the sky last night at about 4am , just vague because it was cloudy. So I took a long exposure (60 second) shot.

I posted this on Threads and someone then told me it’s not possible to photograph an aurora through cloud? But I don’t know how thin or dense the cloud was and also my camera shake makes everything look extra blurry.

If this isn’t an aurora, (maybe reflected through gaps in cloud), what has caused this?

Four leaves

Four leaf clover,

just green and neat.

Splattered with dew or rain

Contrasted against black

How to describe it more?

Thin stem from its centre

Leaves splayed out lobes.

Striped with thin veins

Each curved gently

Upper surface dips downward

Four fan shaped

Instead of the usual three

Lucky?

Memory of the one I found….

Tree across the road

The tree across the road a few years ago. Covered in ivy. This was drawn for an old #bandofsketchers prompt. The prompt was ivy.

I haven’t been doing these challenges for a few months. I think I ought to try again. It seems a shame that I stopped but life has been getting me down. Art is a great cure for sadness I think. I’ll try again soon.