Musing In May

May 

'Now children may 
Go out of doors,

Without their coats,

To candy stores.

The apple branches

And the pear

May float their blossoms through the air,

And Daddy may 

Get out his hoe

To plant tomatoes

In a row,

And afterwards,

May lazily

Look at some baseball

On TV.'

- John Updike 1932- 2009

The illustration is the from Cecily Mary Barker's 'A Flower Fairy Alphabet'.

Of course it could just as well be Mummy who is planting those tomatoes! 

Meanwhile….Back at the ranch

That is what I would do

if I had won the lottery this weekend

Pack up….move to a 100 acre ranch

This one would work just fine…

Owned by super model Tatiana Patiz

She lives on the 20 acre ranch amongst kids, Dogs and horses.

 

The sweet life.

Images from here

A (fairly) Standard Three Light Portrait

Three Elinchrom lights used. Main light camera left Elinchrom 4 bounced into a black backed umbrella from about 45° up and 45° to the subject. Fill light camera right Elinchrom 4 about 1 stop down from main shot through a transparent umbrella. Back light Elinchrom 2 right and behind subject in a medium sized softbox. Nikon D300s and Nikkor 50mm f1.8D.

All this and another light, light stands, plus a background stand, backdrop, two cameras complete with lenses, plus a tripod all fit into one large rolling case to become my highly portable studio ready to leave and shoot on location at any time. Very convenient indeed!

Church in Mellösa Sweden (another take)

I posted a black and white pic of this church last year on this page here: Church in Mellösa Sweden The pic above was taken on the same day, but I prefered this one in colour. Why? I think it has to do with the red building on the left that brings a splash of life to an otherwise drab colour scheme.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2013

A couple of blooms from my allotment this month. Firstly it's apple blossom time - the three small trees at the allotment 'Katy', 'Sunset' and 'James Grieve' are smothered with flowers. Sadly the weather has been cool, wet and windy since the flowers appeared but I'm hoping that the allotment bees have had the opportunity to pollinate. I did not realise until yesterday just how fragrant apple blossom is. I stood and sniffed for some considerable time.

Next the white currant which is dripping flowers this spring and which will hopefully provide some delicious berries this summer. I now have three currant bushes - red, white and black. The white currant is the most productive and the sweetest  ~ 

Thanks to Carol you can enjoy a treasure trove of May blooms over at May Dreams Gardens. I'm off to visit there later on this unseasonable cold and rainy day with pen and paper in hand.

Quote of the day

Waiting Patiently In The Wings ...

Not much opportunity for gardening this weekend - the weather and other activities conspired to press the hold button. On Saturday I went to a Bee Festival - yes that's a bee festival and not a beer festival. The highlight of the event for me was the opportunity to listen to a talk by the inspirational Pam Warhurst from Incredible Edible. More of that in a future post. Yesterday offered a welcome and rare opportunity for me to meet up with my younger brother who lives abroad. So apart from opening and shutting the greenhouse and some potting up on Saturday night when hailstones held me captive in the greenhouse there's not much to report.

However it's been good to catch breath and think. I've been mulling over the new area that I hope to start planting up soon. This is at the base of the gabion walls and it swallowed up some of the 4 tons of top soil that was delivered recently. The border is north facing and rather shady although it will receive afternoon sun. I am hoping to plant some hellebores in there and to start to plant some of my special snowdrops in that area too. I will wait until the snowdrops concerned go dormant before lifting them from their present pots to plant in the ground. There should also be enough room for some pulmonarias, brunneras, corydalis and other spring flowering woodland plants. You can see some of the plants that are possible candidates in the above photo waiting patiently in  the wings for me to decise their fate.

Maybe one or two shrubs at the back to disguise some of the wall but still at that can't make my mind up as to which ones stage. Himself is keen for me to make a start on planting as soon as possible, before the local cat population think that this area of soil might have been specially provided for them. I can see his point but need just a little bit more time to think. Is there any new planting up going on in your garden this spring?