forest

in-camera motion blur. it was late and a normal picture won't have worked anyways

waiting

waiting on Suomenlinna pier for a ferry that would (and did) bring over Kirill, who forgot his passport a day before and had to come over a day later than planned. Maybe we were just lucky, but we had a beautiful slice of finnish summer

you should always have your camera handy

Saffron Walden fire station was having a findraising carwash today and I turned in (I was going to get kids to wash my car, but I was going to do it for such a long time that, well, you know). I think it was something to do with next carnival, at least some of the guys have t-shirts with carnival logo on. to be fair, everything was probably written on the board they were holding by the entrance, but I didn't get to read it really.

my car is very, very clean, unusually so.

I have a few nice snaps from inside the car. I am thinking that when I am back from the hols, I will pop into the station and give them a CD.

californian bluebells

I knew the name Brodiaea and clusterlily, but this time I bought those guys under the name "califirnian bluebells". Not sure if this is a real common name or an invention of whoever gives names to the goods in the shop

Inachis io

apparently it means "daughter of Inachus". well, I never.

our butterfly bush (buddleja) is at the moment full of these and "painted ladies", few red admirals etc. I guess summer is really n the middle now

Llandudno in SA

from time to time I dip into my "old" picture folders, to see if there is something there that I missed when doing the first processing. this pic featured almost blown flat pale blue sky, so I swapped it to something more exciting (and taken in Hunstanton, Norfolk, of all places)

braids and beads

it's difficult to say why this wig was originally bought, but now Kirill is using it when playing with Arco Iris samba group. It looks good, the only problem is, when it's hot, it's very hot to wear. meybe the next wig needs to be crocheted out of cotton thread, that should be nice and cool.

landscape

water drops and shooting by Kirill, my idea and processing (and modelling)

sweet kisses

today at the french market in Cambridge (yes, I know, it's a contradiction in terms. still, there you go). there were all sorts of sweets, and U was hoping for Timur to go for a thick marshmallow "rope", but he didn't - he got himself a bag of small sweets instead

being cool

same picture of Timur making "cool" face - one almost with no processing, secod one processed in "urban decay" style.

field scabious

field scabious

common knapweed

those are field scabious (nasty name, nice flower, coming up tomorrow, watch this space) are making very nice roadside display this year. Funny, I did plant some wild flowers next to my garden fence, none (none at all) came up, and roadsides are full of them.

beads

it took me over a year to decide what to do with those sponge coral beads, and then the necklace was done within thirty minutes when I needed to liven up a dull grey dress. It would have taken less, but the lacey metal beads are difficult for getting the leather cord through. I am quite pleased with the result - the beads are light, quite long, and move around my er chest in most intriguing way, even is I say so myself

greater bindweed (Convolvulus sepium)

I photographed this bindweed over back wall of one of the gardens surrounding the short stay car park on Mill Road, Cambridgem while waiting for Arco Iris Samba Band to start towards Harston and Newton Primary School Fête. While I was finding the best angle, a woman and her child arrived on their bikes and got through the back door of a garden. I turned and found her looking at me, smiling. We had a short chat, her saying that "it's so nice somebody notices how beautiful those white flowers are" and that "Ipomoea (the type of bindweed with large blue-purple flowers) is a weed in my country". Unfortunately, I didn't have time to establish what her country actually was, but the conversation made me remember that Ipomoea is also weed in Portugal, where we were on holidays last year. Porto, especially old town, seems to be pretty much covered in it in august.

fearless one

I would be terrified, but Timur jumps off those things like a little kangaroo

kite

taken on the same day wjen I finally discovered that there is a shipwreck in Hunstanton

hammock

this bindweed certainly took its time before it finally decided to open the first flower.