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© C. Ford.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
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© C. Ford.
From Nightjar, a beautiful Hollyhock, and where you find hollyhocks, you always find bees. Click for full size!
© Nightjar, all rights reserved.
This is not our first time at that camp site, but the earliest we’ve been there in summer, so many plants were still in bloom that you don’t see later, among them the big bougainvillea hedges.
I simply love that flower, but of course you can only grow it in pots in Germany and even when taken inside over winter they never reach the glory of their Mediterranean cousins.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
From Rick, click for full size!
© R. Ford, all rights reserved.
A Barnacle Goose family having supper together, from Ice Swimmer, click for full size!
© Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved.
Blue Skies, ©voyager, all rights reserved
We have beautiful blue skies today, but the humidity persists. At least the temperature is staying in the twenties which makes it bearable to be outside for short periods. All that humid air makes it so hard to walk, though. Jack and I plod along slowly, both of us feeling heavy and like it’s a double gravity kind of day.
Tree chickens!
The “private area” of the mini farm was directly opposite our caravan, and while it was protected with a reed fence, there was a tree that was higher than the fence and the tree had a ramp for the chickens. In the evening some of them enjoyed to walk up the ramp and then hop from branch to branch. I so love that chess board pattern one.
What yer lookin’ at? Never seen a bird in a tree? ©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
The city of Mataró, where the camp site is located is wedged between the sea and the mountains, like the whole region. This makes land fit for construction scarce, but also creates a special microclimate where the mountains so to speak keep the clouds from escaping, so they experience frequent thunderstorms.
Source: Google Earth
One of those hung over the mountains one night when we were having dinner at the “chiringuito”, a small beach bar/restaurant. Wonderful lightning. As soon as we got home I grabbed the camera and the tripod and went to a location where I could possibly, hopefully, finally, take some pics of lightning.
Since I had never done that nor informed myself on how to do it, I simply set the camera to 30 seconds and kept shooting, hoping that lightning would happen in that time.
And I got lucky.
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
©Giliell, all rights reserved
Only that while I was shooting the rain arrived and I was stranded a few 100 metres away from the caravan with the camera in the pouring rain. Since walking back was no option I decided to retreat under a tree and hold my skimpy summer dress taunt over the camera so it wouldn’t get wet. I just hope nobody took pics of the fat lady in her undies holding her dress over the camera.
Yarrow, ©voyager, all rights reserved
Yarrow grows wild around the Thames River where Jack and I took the briefest of walks today. The weather outside is oppressively humid and neither the beast nor myself do well in this kind of weather.
This week we have a majestic Ponderosa Pine in Bismark, North Dakota sent to us by the master of Affinity, Caine. It’s an intimate portrait of a big tree with big personality and it’s a fine addition to our catalog.
Thanks Caine.
Ponderosa Pine, © Caine, all rights reserved
Ponderosa Pine, © Caine, all rights reserved
Ponderosa Pine, © Caine, all rights reserved
Ponderosa Pine, © Caine, all rights reserved
To stay in line with my current series, this daily bird is one of the many bird shoots from the camp site. The stable of the mini farm is home to a colony of barn swallows, which constantly frustrated me in my attempts to take pictures.
They would mostly circle the vicinity of the farm during the day, but in the evening, when the pool was closed, they would come for a drink, despite the water being slightly salty. Sorry for the poor quality. The light was low, the birds were fast and the big lense starts at a 5.6 shutter, so the ISO was pretty high.
More serial shoots below the fold
Camp sites are interesting social spaces, because for a short while they throw people together who then all have to get along with each other. For adults that may be stressful, for kids that often means new friends. Subsequently you get to know their parents and often you find out that just like the kids, you can easily pass some time with total strangers and amuse yourself over a glass of wine.
There’s nothing like ice cream. It’s not that I was unable to take a proper pic, it’s just that I don’t want to publish recognisable images of children, especially not other people’s children. ©Giliell, all rights reserved
Funny enough, this was the second time at this specific camp site that the kid and parents were on a several months long journey through parts of Europe following the birth of a child. I don’t know if this is becoming a new trend with middle class families with one main breadwinner who then takes the paid parental leave and then they all take off together.
I’m not going to have another child to find out.
Last night I was sitting behind the house with some friends, when I heard a “plonk” where no plonk should be. I looked and found the biggest caterpillar I’d ever seen. It had crawled up a grass stalk but then gravity happened and it ended up on the terrace.
Turns out it’s the mature form of the Elephant Hawk Moth which are indeed about 8 cm (3″ and a bit) long. After taking the pictures I took the hapless traveller and put it some place with more green.
Elephant Hawk Moth in training. ©Giliell,all rights reserved.
Elephant Hawk Moth in training. ©Giliell,all rights reserved.
Elephant Hawk Moth in training. © Giliell, all rights reserved.
Elephant Hawk Moth in training. © Giliell, all rights reserved.