Ruby & Two fer Tuesday - Hints of Autumn!

Almost a 'Wordless Wednesday' pair of photo's these...
The warm, often Ruby colours of Autumn I do enjoy.
Likewise, those warm Indian Summer days - know it's no longer politically correct to say that but I think that's madness!
Sadly, there is no sign of them anyway, just gloom & rain - so this Autumn's colours may be subdued.

Blue's Coloured Thursday - KIWI!

When playing any meme, it's always wise to get ones 'prompt' facts correct.
For some strange reason, till gently put right, I'd got Burgundy on my mind rather than KIWI - maybe it was because I've been enjoying tippling on red wine!!!
Anyway, had to really think about KIWI as a colour as to me, it's more a delicious fruit...I remember clearly, my very first taste in the early 1970's of this then new luxury item, also called a Chinese Gooseberry here!!!
I was @ Technical College, my friend & I each bought one to try, and with a 'borrowed' knife from the college canteen carefully peeled back the furry coat to reveal lush brilliant green sweet succulent flesh - have loved them ever since!

As @ the moment I'm sort of living the life of a hermit, have regrettably not been down to the Covered Market's fruit stands to purchase some to photograph for today & then eat with pleasure; so it's local KIWI greens in nature looking lush after the recent continuing rains that I'm featuring instead...
I do have a KIWI coloured cake though from the Celebration Cake Shop's window - taken this year & not previously posted [I think?]...
As lately my blogging has been more miss than hit, KIWI as in New Zealander & not as in green friends Doyle & Mollie [who I suspect picked picked this weeks colour :)] have taken up the slack re me failing to post on 'True Colours Thursday' - they with my blessing now host the 'Blue's Coloured Thursday' meme HERE!
With no pressure, I'm happy to play with colours again - why don't you?

Monochrome & Odd Shot Monday - Natures Tree HeArt!

As it was Valentines Day yesterday, am going to reprise a past shot, but this time tweaked to Black & White for Alieni's Monochrome Weekend.

That near by park of mine never fails to come up with images - have a Heart or maybe an Angel...

Monochrome Monday - Little Boxes!

"Little boxes on the hill tree side

Little boxes made of ticky tacky

Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes everywhere"...

The other Spring, groups of rather mysterious looking nesting boxes - there's no little round bird sized hole in the front, just a very narrow slit for an opening underneath each one - appeared on a number of the Evergreen trees around my nearby park, and last week three more have gone up as seen above.

I've always presumed they're for bats, probably Pipistrelle - a little research [HERE] confirmed they were such roosts.

How successful they've been I don't know, having never caught sight of a bat when looking out @ night to star gaze!

Alieni is creator, mine host of Monochrome Weekend.

Also, thanks for techy help from Wilma as how to do a 'Strike' out!

True Colours Thursday - PINE GREEN and Wishes for the NEW YEAR!

This unlike me, is a very short Colours post, but for the moment, life is getting in the way of my desire to blog.

Hence, from the Photo Archives - my local park is known for it's fine, varied EverGREEN's...

It's also host to a annual Christmas Tree Recycling Point, which past experience tells me, will already be gathering once loved, prematurely ie pre Twelfth Night abandoned PINE's...

The Celebration Cake Shop is closed for the Holidays, giving it's clever confectionists a well deserved rest.

This mini cake, was taken before their Christmas window was cleared...

To join True Colours Thursday, all you need, is to post a photo/photographs & text, or better still both, on the specified colour of the week.
If you simply want to use the idea as a 'prompt' for a post, as I do now, with many memes, that is fine with me.
But, if, you'd like others including me, to visit you, please leave a comment below, so we know you are 'IN'!
For this meme only, I lift my 'Comment Moderation' to help players connect with each other.
Everyone, who to my knowledge has participated recently, is named in the TCT Roll Call in my side bar.
Next weeks colour is SNOWWHITE!
And, please remember ideas for forth coming colours would be very welcome!

~~~~~~~

ALSO, it's New Years Eve, I have two quotes I want to share...

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true."

Lord Alfred Tennyson - In Memoriam

[1809 -1892]

And...

"An optimist stays up to see the New Year in.

A pessimist waits to make sure the old one leaves. "

William E. (Bill) Vaughan

[1915 - 1977]

I, for one WILL be staying up to see the demise of 2009, as I want it gone BIG TIME.
And 2010 in, in the hope that it truly turns the tide!

A very HAPPY NEW YEAR to my friends.
May this coming year & fresh decade be kind to us ALL.

True Colours Thursday - A Very Merry COLOURFUL Christmas to Everyone!

To me personally, one of THE pleasures of Christmas is seeing delightfully decorated, fairy lit trees glimpsed through windows in homes, but as I'm not voyeuristic enough to photo those, here's three captured whilst shopping instead...Re my own tree - artificial these years despite the love of that real pine fragrance in a warm room, I don't have a favourite, particular colour scheme, as my decorations are a treasured COLOURFUL mishmash of the old & new - some dating back years...Others, more recent Seasonal Gifts from close friends like Maggie & Mitch and BJ...However, this year, things are a bit different.

I finally put up my tree on Monday, the latest ever, ever, ever!

And, it is the barest/bear affair too!

Only Santa knows why I heaved my well laden wicker Christmas Decoration hamper up into my loft last January!!!

Despite several attempts to retrieve it, I was forced to gave up for safeties sake, re being too unsteady on the ladder!

Grrr!
Thankfully, the Tree its-self, laughably called a 'Tall Canadian' - it looks nothing like Little Buddy; and it's Lights - new last year & regrettably, oh so white LED ones - how I miss that mellow candle glow, were stowed away downstairs!
So, I've decorated it with a few small teddybears, cats, an appropiate mini stocking, gift bows & a trace of tinsel...

However, as happy as I am with my result, I do miss my special ornaments!

Hence, if neighbour Pussycat Paul, calls in today, I'll probably push him up into my loft - not quite the Xmas Greeting he will be expecting - LOL, but he's a nice obliging guy, a good friend!

I leave you, with my favourite seasonal cake from the Celebration Cake Shop, which says what I wish you ALL...

To join True Colours Thursday, all you need, is to post a photo/photographs & text, or better still both, on the specified colour of the week.
If you simply want to use the idea as a 'prompt' for a post, as I do now, with many memes, that is fine with me.
But, if, you'd like others including me, to visit you, please leave a comment below, so we know you are 'IN'!
For this meme only, I lift my 'Comment Moderation' to help players connect with each other.
Everyone, who to my knowledge has participated recently, is named in the TCT Roll Call in my side bar.
Now, as next week is New Years Eve, and I imagine celebrations will abound.
But, in case you still have time to join me, the colour is PINE GREEN!
And, please remember ideas for forth coming colours would be very welcome!

The Farewell or Welcoming Tree!

Some what sad, in my eyes, the very best Christmas Tree, Brighton had to offer, was found @ the Railway Station... I headed home from there earlier today.
Now, I need to catch up big time with sending my 'Seasonal Greetings' cards etc - all will be LATE!

A Brighton December Medley with a Mellow Yellow Middle!

There is nothing I enjoy more than pottering around here on a bright, if cool day!

Brighton Pier has it's own Christmas Tree, one of the very few I've spied in the town, more's the pity...

Maderia Drive for once has been pleasantly quiet, after the Biker & Car Rallies on previous visits...

North Street is seasonally decorated, unlike other area's...

And, the Royal Pavilion is as elegant as ever in Winter sun...

Re - Mellow Yellow - my visit of course, included a lengthy enjoyable lunch today with JI @ Bill's Produce Store...

Then, another stroll through the quirky North Lanes...

Dusk over the relic that was the West Pier, has been particularly fine this weekend...

Plus, the Pier's tree really stands out @ night...

And, no, it wasn't taken @ midnight, the clock is 'Out of Order'!

Wordless Wednesday - The First Trees for Sale!

Sky Watch Friday - Autumn Market!

Gloucester Green in central Dreamingspires, is home to a new development of modern designer apartments...I do like the 'look', as fancy flat living, but perhaps not the location so much!
It was though, thoughtfully tree'ed for Autumnal colour...Every Thursday it's central square, hosts an Antiques [& Craft] Market.
I regularly check it out....All these shots were taken yesterday morning, before the skies clouded over & we, locally battened down the hatches for a long weekend of torrential gales & rain - Yuk, yuk, yuk!

Sky Watch for the brave, is to be found HERE!

Monochrome & Odd Shot Monday - Tree Profiles!

From Saturdays walk around Knole Park... The Conifers dark profile against the sky just seemed to lended itself to a Black & White take for Monochrome Weekly, created & hosted by Alieni.

While, as soon as I espied this odd tree in the deer park, my fertile imagination saw the shape of a Stags head, antlers & all...

Odd Shots home is @ Katney's Kaboodle.

Camera Critters Sunday - Dogs & Deer!

Yesterday, I went along on another walk organised the Southern branch of WELTAF [Welsh Terrier & Friends] & this time lead by by Taffy's humans my friends H & J, who organised a fine late Autumn day too.

The latest venue was Knole Park, covering 1000 acres...

Little has changed there in the last 500 years; though, signs of the damaged wreaked by the Great Storm in October 1987, when apparently 70% of the ancient trees were lost, can still be seen...

In total eight Welshies, one Airedale Molly & a Cain cross Robbie, with their attendants enjoyed a great walk...

Knole, is a interesting park, created in the 15th Century for the Archbishops of Canterbury to have somewhere away from Court for hunting, it is one of the few surviving medieval deer parks in England and the only one in Kent...Today, a 600 strong herd of Fallow and darker, smaller Japanese Sika deer roam freely.

And, they were surprisingly tame around humans & dogs...

Camera Critters is Misty Dawn's creation, the blog is HERE!

Two fer Tuesday - Autumn Leaves!

This weeks inspiration for Jonna's pleasingly easy meme [you simply require two or pairs of photo's on your choice of topic] is the ever changing daily Autumnal colours - this year they are growing increasingly good!
And, two snippets of verse spotted in my Childrens Birthday Book's pages for October.
As I couldn't choose between them, I'm sharing both!

"Come, little leaves, said the Wind one day,
Come o'er the meadows with me and play;
Put on your dresses of yellow, red and gold;
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold."
Anon.

"Fall, leaves fall; die, flowers away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me,
Fluttering from the Autumn tree."
Emily Bronte
[1818 - 1848]