Fences, Graves, Fish and Pan

This is the bit between the dog field and the cemetery - the gap in the railings is just to the left. This is the corner, which contains an old horse-chestnut tree.

"And when you are dead, mom, this is how we'll dance around your grave."

"Is this yours?
You're very old."

This one for Aims, who wanted to see the awching Bramble Explorer, which has reached its target of the other hedge now.

A quick trip to Morisson's gave me the fish sculpture against the evening sky

Finally, this was for Nice Caroline
who's promoting the launch of her new novel Black Books which is out on the 1st September.

Caroline Smailes

Look down and see the sky!

Smatterings of rain -
enough to make tyres hiss
but not to cool off.

How cheering, to look down at the floor and see the sky!

This is all temporary, for when we have forty days of rain I shall long once more for the sunlit fields of my youth. It is ever my dichotomy, to long for that I don't have.

So, no rain, but the overnight rain at least made the walk cooler, particularly under the avenue of beeches in the cemetery.

This mushroom was about three inches across. It was reminiscent of something...

This is where they're dumping all the mucking out of that horse I told you about. It does make that bit of the cemetery a bit pongy, though. There is, however, a lovely old piece of fencing.

Fence, Bramble, Buddlia, Lilies

Cooler at long last - four days of heat was enough to call it summer.

Fence, Barbed Wire, Wall, Ivy
At the back of the cemetery.

A cut log and fresh Blackberry leaves.

I noticed a bramble overhead in the gennel yesterday. Today, I kid you not, it had grown a further 12" and reached the other side.

This at the front of our garden

Teasel and Buddlia

Amongst the weeds in a neighbour's garden, two Calla Lilies flower.

(shot at long distance and cropped, so the resolution is low.)

Blue flowers and blue humour

Gossamer strands like
filaments of light adhere
to fresh morning skin.

Is the haze of blue flowers in the far field visible? I don't know what they are (not thistles) and I can't get close enough to see.

The wall at the back of someone's house. There were about 15 different species of plant here.

Unfortunately, while i was taking photographs a chap with a dog turned up and I had to scarper to avoid my dogs fighting with his.

I loved the graphic on this sign, which is almost opposite our house.

Not just danger, but lightning that will kill you if you climb this gate...






Remember Viz Comic?
Jack reminded me of a bottom inspector here.

Talking of Viz, I was looking for the stock image here when I came across THIS SITE selling all the old issues. Now I used to live on Osbourne Road and Lily Crescent, where the Viz boys lived, was less than a hundred yards away in the 80's (It still is that distance, but I moved south). I had the complete set of Viz from 1 to about 40 and look at the pice they're worth now! £300 for a comic I paid 30p for when it came out.

Heat

Very hot again today. This from the cool of the cemetery.

Somebody's garden wall, fence, garden, arch.

Evening guests roasting toes around the fire pit in the circle.

Sun, Sand, Fences and Fancies

Beautiful, hot, stifling day today. I took the dogs for their usual walk but took few pictures. To be honest, I was still suffering from all the walking at the beach yesterday.

The dogs get very excited at walk time When I sit to put on my boots, they all come to me. Bear, today, put both front feet on my lap (his head then level with mine). Not to be outdone, Trickster then climbed on his back.

We were in Cleethorpes yesterday. Here's some barbed wire and metal fencing...

There's something wrong about the grammar of this sign - I just can't put my metaphorical finger on it.

This has to be the best yoghurt in the world - Activa fig flavour. Wonderful!

The block of postcards behind are ones I had done for An Ungodly Child.

Please e-mail me your address at leatherdykeuk (at) gmail (dot) com if you want one. Offer valid for a week or so.

Finally today, in recognition that I'm not going to be able to do martial arts any time soon, my wall sheet of atemi points was replaced today by a sheet of
Characters for an Epic Tale

Plants, Bins, Plots

This delightful stone trough full of ivy was in someone's front garden.

I found it utterly delightful (though I wouldn't have filled it with Ivy)

The rubbish bin has been half-emptied. Am I going on about this bin too much?

It is rather attractive :)

I took that pot of chrysants in the front. I'm hoping it can be saved. It was very dry indeed.

Either a new cremation plot or an old one dug up.

I suspect the latter, though i swear that it wasn't my dogs that did it!

Trucks Dogs and Benches

This huge lorry was parked up outside our house for about 30 minutes this morning. I've no idea what it's carrying, nor for whom it was for. It just went away again later.

This was taken from the lounge window so much of the lorry is obscured by our herbaceous bed.

Trickster is such a cutie.

I was lying on the ground at this point, having just taken a photograph of a very late dandelion.

Lone dandelion
almost late for the party
it forgot its clock

Rose Bay Willow Herb and ripe grass heads

I was surprised that I hadn't yet taken a photograph of this bench.

This is Me? Meme

1. Rachel, 2. Nina, 3. Sunrise at Nombre de Dios Mission, 4. Perspective Matters (500 unique and cool people count this photo as a favorite), 5. Layer cake, 6. coffee & the city, 7. St Mary's Well., 8. Vanilla Ice Cream, 9. The Hardy Tree, 10. Where is the love?, 11. More ghosts in the woods, 12. Book Cover - Abaddon Rising

A meme via Susannah

If you want to play too, type your answer to each of the questions below into a Flickr search. Using only the first page, choose your favorite image, then copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (3 columns, 4 rows). Leave a comment if you play, so i can have a peek.

The questions:

1. What is your first name? (Rachel)
2. What is your favorite food? (cake)
3. What high school did you attend? (St. Augustine's)
4. What is your favorite color? (black)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Daniel Craig)
6. Favorite drink? (tea)
7. Dream vacation? (The Gower)
8. Favorite dessert? (Vanilla ice cream)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (writer)
10. What do you love most in life? (peace)
11. One word to describe you. (silent)
12. Your Flickr name. (leatherdykeuk)

Fences and Benches again

This is a fence on the way to (or back from) the local shop. You may remember I posted this fence before, here, when it was covered in an elder tree. Now the elder has gone and the fence looks poorer for it.

This is a sweet piece of fencing in someone's front garden. It's only about a foot high but it's quite charming.

Someone else's garden.
I just like the juxtaposition of colours and verticals.

Not an interesting fence, just a good composition.

If I go to the field via the post box, this is where we come out and where we enter the field.

Trickster's shouting impatiently as I fiddle with the camera on the phone.

Bear id anxious to get into the field too.

I limbo under the middle post.

The waste bin is back again - and it hasn't even been emptied.

How very odd.

The front garden, and the teasels are just coming into flower.

Delightful, though i shall have to do my best to stop them setting seed. From a cultivated plant two years ago they're rapidly becoming weeds.

Skies and Gates

I couldn't resist a shot of the sky today. Although it was so windy I had to wear my ancient and very ratty leather coat (and peaked cap) and looked like a cantankerous old bloke (aren't they all?) i couldn't complain about the sun or the sky. Magical.

These are the cemetery gates. I'm tempted to visualise these when I talk about the gates of Laverstone Manor. They're not quite what i had in mind but they're close.

Another one of the sky with an X marks the spot. and a Bear running about madly.

A Hat full of Rainbows

I actually forgot my phone when I took the dogs a walk this morning, so no photos from there. This, however, was the view from the front door as the wyves went out last night. A rainbow and a splash of electric blue sky.

So instead of landscapes you have photos from the garden this evening. I wanted a new livejournal icon to replace the sai (I've had to stop kobudo and jiu-jitsu for the immediate future - too much leg and foot damage) so seeing them daily is a bit emotionally painful. Here, however, is my favourite, dilapidated hat, in this shot amongst a bad of sage and honeysuckle.

This shot got a bit bleached. It's the hat atop my old 'George' - the log cemented in place and used as point practice when I used to study rapier.

Finally, the hat in the greenhouse.
I potted up a couple of plant I bought from Morissons for 30p each, some parsley and a water lily.

Skips, bins, currants and critics

Another skip, this one full of kitchen waste and absolute rubbish. It wouldn't surprise me if the police raided it. What a disgusting house, too. This is just around the corner from us on the 'other' side of the street.

Far more pleasant, this.

After finding raspberries and gooseberries on the dog walking field, today I find ripe black currants. How super. I managed to pick a sweet handful.

Alas, cuttings to be taken in autumn and kept in a nursery bed for up to 2 years. I don't have space for that.

Remember the picture of the lily in the waste bin yesterday?

This bare patch is where the waste bin was. I don't know what it did to deserve execution.

And because I can...

This shot from the garden of Kay's Aunt Mirada, whose birthday party we went to today.

She is the most delightful of English ladies, and I wouldn't be upset if I were like her when I grow up.

She's partly responsible for An Ungodly Child, too, since she used to be an editor and gave the book a brief critique which encouraged me to rewrite it from start to finish.