End Of Month View ~ July 2013.

The end of July has been trumpeted in with the opening of the in your face colour of  the oriental lily 'Robina' and with much welcome rain. We've been away for a good part of the month so garden and allotment have been left to do their own thing although the allotment had the attention of a good fairy in the shape of my plot neighbour. Before we left I jokingly asked her if she would water in the event of a drought not knowing what would transpire in our absence.

The garden looked rather forlorn and frazzled on our return. In fact I thought we had leapt into August with some plants having flowered and gone over with indecent haste. I'm hoping that some of them such as the penstemons will throw up more flowering stems. Others though such as the day lilies have been revelling in the heat ~ 

The new border though is not a pretty site. I was dismayed to see the appearance of the dreaded horsetail as well as a myriad of annual weeds. I went to work clearing the area with many dark mutterings and then a couple of days ago further havoc was caused by some heavy rain. This caused some of the annuals to snap off before they even reached their prime. I have also noticed that most of the planting lists to one side. I have concluded that this is because there are trees overhanging the area. Now this will not be a problem in spring where I am hoping that the hellebores and snowdrops will thrive but I need to do some more thinking about what will be happy there later in the season. On the plus side the newly planted sedums on top of the gabion wall are beginning to establish themselves and seem most happy. They were coming into flower as we left - mainly white flowers tinged with pink but a few (fortunately just a few) yellow ones too. The most exciting development is that they are now slowly but surely starting to creep over the edge of the wall ~ 

I thought that I may have completely missed out on strawberries at the allotment this year. I cleared the two strawberry beds last year and now just have the one newly planted bed. I was so pleased that some were considerate enough to wait to be eaten. I'm more than happy with 'Cambridge Favourite' but have not been impressed with the growth or taste of 'Albion.' Maybe the latter will improve with age so will reserve judgement until next year. The summer fruiting raspberries were almost completely dessicated though so no jam this year. Autumn fruiting 'Polka' has made a head start and there have been delicious pickings to decorate my morning bowl of porridge. The currants have thrived and the apples look set for a good harvest. Before we left I nipped off small courgettes that were just forming so did not come home to any real monsters. The peas looked rather frayed round the edges but I have been able to enjoy some more along with broad beans. Now is the turn of the French beans to be harvested - this year I planted a climbing trio of purple 'Blauhilde', green 'Cobra' and speckled 'Borlotti'. The latter however does not appear to be climbing as yet. As in the garden weeds have mushroomed overnight so I'm waiting for a cooler and dry day for a marathon weed in.

For once a whole month has gone by without me buying a single plant but I will have a chance to remedy that now that the bulb catalogues have arrived in the post!

Thanks as always to Helen over at 'The Patient Gardener's Weblog' for giving us the opportunity to share our end of month views.

It's Almost Time For Haven . . . I Hope I Make It!

I finally signed up for a bloggers conference and I'm really excited about attending but as luck would have it, I got a jury summons (seriously, what are the chances)!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things go well and that I'm out the door in plenty of time for Haven... can't wait!

July Musing

                                            Rosa 'Blush Noisette'

This little space which scented box encloses
Is blue with lupins and is sweet with thyme
My garden is all overblown with roses,
My spirit is overblown with rhyme,
As like a drunken honeybee I waver
From house to garden and again to house,
And undetermined which delight to favour,
On verse and rose alternatively carouse"

- Vita Sackville - West, 1892 -1962

P.S. Thanks to a comment from Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' I realised that I had named my rose wrongly. Yet another senior moment which has now been corrected.

Birthday Celebration with an American Hero

Every once in a long while there are those moments in life when something really amazing happens and while you are having the experience you keep thinking you want to slow things down and find a way to capture the moment. Or you just want to keep pinching yourself!!   Well, that was what happened to me last week.

There have been several unbelievable moments this summer but last week was truly exceptional.  You might have read in the news that Senator Bob Dole turned 90 and there was to be a big invitation-only birthday celebration in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.  I’m proud and honored to say that I was one of the invited guests and attended the celebration. 

The attendees were mainly some of the most significant U.S. political figures and it was mind-boggling to be surrounded with the likes of John McCain (he stood right in front of me), Michelle Bachman, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch, John Boehner, Chuck Robb,Mitch McConnell, Barbara Mikulski, Cokie Roberts, Lynda Bird Johnson Robb and so many more notable public figures (my friend and I are still trying to figure out the names of some of the people we recognized but didn't know who they were)!  Messages from three U.S. Presidents were shared with the crowd and while I never saw him I heard that John Kerry poked his head in for a few minutes. 

  The invitation required that we enter the Capitol at a designated location and of course we had to go through a thorough screening.  The invitation also stated that we were not to bring in cameras though I did manage to take a few photos with my phone.  The photos aren’t really that good but there was a White House photographer on hand to take professional photos.  Maybe we will get to see them.

 The speeches at the event were so touching.  Many of the presenters offered some moving and inspiring stories about Senator Dole and his life.  The one thing that stuck with me more than anything was this.  We were ask to look around the room and see that Statuary Hall was filled with Republicans and Democrats and while politically there may be differences in opinions, the room was filled with friends.  It was further stated that when friends come together to work through issues, positive things happen. In the end we are all Americans working together for the good of our country.

At the end of the speeches there was a surprise appearance….Lee Greenwood!  He came to sing for his friends Elizabeth and Bob Dole.  Wow! What a night!

After the event many of us lingered to greet Senator Dole.  

 As the crowd thinned I took the opportunity to quietly walk through the building.  It was an amazing American moment for me and a night that I will never forget.

I just had to take this photo!!

View from one of the balconies

Such a fitting label, perfectly titled for the evening

A view of the Supreme Court from the Capitol

 

Current News

Taking a break from what looks like a long job. I'm in the midst of removing the stalks from a ginormous mound of white currants. My favourite the red currants are done and dusted, the black currants are still not quite there but the white currants are dripping thick and fast. I have filled a large box this afternoon with probably about one third of the harvest. Last night's search amongst allotment and recipe books did not produce much in the way of inspiration. There were suggestions to combine them with other fruits to make jam as they are high in pectin. However I do not have a surplus of other fruit at the moment to do that. Nigel Slater has hopefully come to the rescue with a recipe for a white currant compote, which he describes as delicious both hot and cold. There are only three ingredients - white currants, water and caster sugar so there should be little room for error. I must admit that I like simple recipes. Are there any other white currant growers out there? If so please tell me what you do with your harvest. Oh well coffee break almost over and time to get back to the job in hand. Something tells me that this is not going to be the most exciting Saturday night.
PS Slight blip - Nigel recommends having a biscuit or two at hand to enhance consumption of compote. We do not have a single one in the house so will have to remedy that sad situation in the morning. I'm thinking ginger snap. Any suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday - Shed Envy

Portraits are about People!

I know it seems a rather obvious statement, but if you are going to make portrait photography your speciality, then the most important skill is not whether you have mastered the convoluted workings of a modern camera, or if indeed you have a really great "top of the range" piece of high megapixel wizardry, or if your lens can outresolve even the best that aliens on another (more advanced) planet may or may not have. It doesn't even matter if you have the best software that money can buy, or indeed rent, and have taken all the right courses, purchased all the right plugins, and know all the right scripts that a (sometimes dodgy) education can buy. Heck, it doesn't even matter if you can ride a unicycle! What does matter is your people skills!


I love working with people, which is why I love taking portraits, shooting weddings and events, and anything else that involves being around and interacting with humans of all shapes, sizes, creeds, nationalities and eccentricities. I worked in retail, sales and other customer centric businesses for many years and loved every minute of being of service to others!

I have found in my years of photographing people that the first and best thing is to get them to calm down, relax and stop thinking of the camera as an assault weapon bent on their destruction. I know they feel that way because that is exactly how I feel every time the roles are reversed and I find myself on the wrong end of the photo capturing device.

Spend time talking about what they do, what their hopes and aspirations are, how it's going at work, where they went to school, how many languages they speak... etc. etc. Really just become their new, and trusted, friend. As quickly as possible. And it doesn't help to try and fake it either! It has to come from the heart or they will see right through your facade and you will never get the best out of them. Ever.

So really what I have to say is this. If you are not a "people person" then probably portrait photography is not for you. If you are not sure if you are, well then maybe you aren't and a career in landscapes would be more your cup of tea. How do you know for sure? Well, do some soul searching, ask yourself if you genuinely care about people, be honest with yourself. If you do, then brush up on those communication skills because they will set you apart from the rest and your clients will keep coming back as well.

Anybody can learn how to use a camera, but very few photographers know how to get the best out of their subjects. The ones that do are already known to us because it's this one skill that makes their portraits stand out from the crowd.

The pic above is of an up and coming young singer songwriter in Southern Sweden called Fatima Al Atar. Look out for her soon to be released CD, judging by her voice I think she could be the real deal!

Happy shooting!

French Leave

Slowly coming back down to earth here after a holiday in France. Our ageing camper van behaved itself impeccably taking us down to the Limousin region, where we stayed in the cottage you can see above. Morever aforesaid camper van got us back to Caen without any mishaps. We made our way down slowly along country roads, via small towns and villages so had a few nights on either side sleeping in the van.

The weather was brilliant though too hot to do anything that required much in the way of energy. Some magical moments to look back on including star studded night skies and falling asleep to the sound of chirping crickets and croaking frogs. My nocturnal star gazing was somewhat curtailed though when we found out that there were wild boar in the vicinity. I did not stray so far from the cottage then but contented myself with sticking my head out of the bedroom window to gaze upwards into the darkness.

We eat well and drank too much. Did a fair bit of reading - more on that in another post and visited a garden festival - again more on that subject to follow.

Thanks to the wonders of satellite television we were able to view and celebrate Andy Murray's Wimbledon win. A few days later we were also able to celebrate La Fête Nationale (Bastille Day), when a flurry of balloons floated over our campsite on the balmiest evening you could possibly imagine.

In our absence the garden and allotment have frazzled but why oh why have the weeds still carried on growing?

My Summer. It's Not What I'd Planned...It's Better!!!

If you are like me you start the summer season off with goals and plans and my list of to-dos for this summer were simple:

-       Do some deep cleaning around the house;

-       Read a lot of books (my reading list is a mile long);

-       Enjoy some sunshine;

-       Take a short excursion to Mexico. 

So far I’ve not managed to accomplish anything that was on my summer list of goals and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to adjust to the fact that family happenings will often rearrange my schedule. One of our granddaughters decided to stay with us this summer and it has totally rearranged our house and our lives and I’m happy to say that instead of getting to do the things on my list, I’ve done some other great things that were on her list. So here is how the summer is turning out.

This was the view from our hotel - unbelievable!!!

-   We went to Greece!  My husband’s brother got married in Mykonos so almost all of the family spent 5 days in heaven!  Sometime soon I want to share more photos.  It was far more beautiful than I'd ever imagined.

Playing dress up with Jojo

     Instead of reading this summer we’ve played Sorry, Yahtzee and other games not to mention spending time sewing, crafting and cooking all sorts of fun things. We’ve made bean art projects, bread dough roses and spent time sketching and painting. I haven’t done this in years. We've also watched Gidget, a lot, and I love it!

 -   The rain just won’t go away but we’ve used the indoor time to play more games and instead of working late every night the way I normally do, I’ve rushed home to be with my granddaughter.  It's been great to get out of the office earlier.  We did go on a canoeing excursion, fell in the lake and lost all of our electronic devices and my new camera...not a fun outing but it was an experience we will never forget. 

-   So the trip to Mexico is on hold for now but this week I received the most incredible invitation to attend an event in DC which I can’t talk about now but will after I attend the event.  I’m going to D.C. on Tuesday and believe me I will have more to share once the trip takes place.  My understanding is that there will be no pictures but my memory will capture the moments and I'm hoping to put into words the things that I see.  I’m still amazed (and somewhat nervous) about attending but I’m honored beyond words to have been invited to attend this incredible reception.  Believe me, I will be back to share more about this next week. (Think American hero).

     I’M GOING TO HAVEN!!!  Honestly, I signed up for it so long ago that I'd almost forgotten about it until the email reminders started coming in.  I can’t wait to attend, meet new bloggers, GET INSPIRED and get ready for a great online fall season!!  It’s just two weeks away!!!!!  

    P.S. I think the housework will have to wait for now.  Guess it's time to start my fall to-do list....

I

Flyin…..

We are spending the next couple of weeks in another corner

of this this amazing world

In the country of Lithuania

I’m in the mood to fall in love…

with

the brave little country

 

Join me on instagram ( Lindalime)  if you want

to fall in love too!

Iki pasimatymo

see ya later... in Lithuanian

I’ll let you know how it works….

So… it was claimed to be a

Chinese Door guardian

claimed also to keep the evil spirits out.

Sold.

Take THAT evil spirits.

{ cue: neighing }

Our private War Horse.

Traffic Circle in Fredensborg

The (almost) Eastern corner of the Landskrona Citadel

After posting a few low-light/night shots of the Landskrona Citadel I decided to post one of it during the day, and what a beautiful Swedish summer day it was!