Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt August Linky

I only have a few photos left to find for Rinda's photo hunt and I will post the best of each on 22nd September. I still need to do my selfie and haven't had a chance to photograph a rocking chair. The flag is still a little unsatisfactory too!
So I have a few this month. I managed to find a couple of "other " animals for no. 3 A Person Walking a Dog or other Animal which you can see here and here.

So here are my other finds:-

No. 12 A Public Restroom, bathrooms or toilet.

I have previously posted the exterior of a Victorian Public Conveniences situated in Clifton, Bristol.

Since then a couple of interiors have recently caught my eye. These pictures seemed quite glamorous for the public loos at Yeovil Hospital 

Then on our visit to Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens the floral theme was extended to the toilets.

Note the Dyson super hand driers. One conveniently positioned for the tall and one for the short! By the time we had walked around the whole gardens in the rain I would have been grateful for a walk through whole body drier!

13.  A Merry Go Round or Carousel

This has proved quite difficult.  I have had visions of all sorts of colourful roundabouts but I have been nowhere like that. I have had one option up my sleeve that today I fetched down and dusted off. My Escor wooden roundabout that I have had since I was very small. It has survived many other children after me playing with it including my own children.

Then when I was in Bath a few weeks ago there was a children's entertainment fair in Queen Square. My daughter was fairly horrified when I got my camera out but here is a toddler carousel that had quite a queue of excited children.

19 A Ticket Booth 

Again I did post a ticket office at Clifton Suspension Bridge but spotted this one at Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens and thought it was rather good. 

All Recipes Citrus

A few weeks ago I made a bit of an error on my internet grocery shop. I had thought I had ordered 5 single lemons only to find I had ordered 5 nets! A total of 25 lemons!

Time to get out the lemon recipes! It's surprising how many you can use. We have had lemon tart, lemon meringue pie,  lemon curd, lemon cake and of course slices of lemon in the Pimms with the cucumber and mint! 

Yesterday I had 5 left. Just enough to make some lemon curd and a lemon cake filled with lemon curd of course.

That's a birthday cake made for the hostess of our lunch out today!

Walking Another Animal...

It is not uncommon when I take the Monty for a walk for one of the cats to come too. Typically they never seem to follow when I have my camera. I also have to be careful that they don't follow me when I go down to the road. This evening I was going for a quick walk around the fields and Socks decided to come too. He jumps from hedge to hedge jumping out on Monty at every opportunity!

I managed to catch a few photos on my phone.

Including one of both of them. Monty has to wait until the gate is opened but Socks has no such trouble!

Soon after this Socks decided to do his own thing and wandered off across a field. He will come back in his own time! So yesterday I had a cow going for a walk, today a cat. What will it be tomorrow?

Walking an Animal other than a dog.

On Rinda's list for the Summertime Photography Hunt no. 3 is Walking a dog or other animal. So when I was standing on lookout at the junction ready to encourage the cattle to go in the right direction I took these.

Well the cows are going for a walk!

More Water

The last couple of days I have shown some photos that I took at Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens. Here are a few more water pictures other than the rain. Another view of the rope bridge.

One of the ponds.

 A great pond themed carving from an old tree.

The lily ponds.

A Pair of Bridges

I am joining in with Pairs created by  Helena today. Yesterday I gave an account of our rainy visit to Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens. Despite the rain I managed a few photos including:-

A  Himalayan Rope Bridge

Which I didn't attempt.

A Japanese Style Wooden Bridge

Despite the weather we had a lovely wander through these scenic gardens back and forth along many paths.

Dodging the Raindrops

Our younger daughter has obtained at very short notice a weeks work experience in mid Somerset. This entails an hour and a quarter journey there and back morning and evenings to take her there (roll on her passing her test!). Today Brian came with me and we decided to have a day out while she was there. Brian was optimistic because the day looked bright at 5.30am when he got up. The sunrise was red but despite this shepherd 's warning he remained positive. Should I at this stage have mentioned to him that the weather report had a dark cloud with multiple drops under the forecast for 10 O Clock onwards? I decided not to! 

The day started well with a sunny trip down and we waved Emma off for her day. We then headed down through the beautiful Dorset countryside. The rolling chalk hills and the picturesque thatched cottages are reminiscent of the many Thomas Hardy novels I read at school. We stopped on the outskirts of such a village to view the extraordinary figure of the Cerne Abbas Giant depicted in the chalk hill.

The figure is in serious need of restoration as it fades into the surrounding grass. 

The age of this is disputed. Some feel that it is Iron Age whilst others believe it is supposed to be a mockery to Oliver Cromwell.

We then moved onto the even more beautiful village of Abbotsbury to visit Abbotsbury Tropical Gardens where we started with a cooked breakfast! The gardens opened at 10am and almost on the dot the weather forecast proved itself to be correct. The heavens opened in true monsoon style. Undaunted we started around the gardens. This was after paying an extortionate £11.50 for the privilege. The gardens are indeed beautiful and unsupisingly we had them almost to ourselves. No need to worry about people in the way for photos. We soon learnt to stand under the trees and shrubs to admire our surroundings. We just had to find ever increasingly large leaves!

Dare I suggest the word elf?

The rest of the day on leaving the gardens remained damp and unsuitable for photos. You only have my word for it that I scrambled up onto Chesil beach to see the sea while Brian waited in the car. We then drove back past Hardy's Monument set on what could have passed for Egdon Heath. Sadly by now the sea mist was so bad that the monument was barely more than a shadow from the road only approximately 100 yards away. Even I was not tempted to get out of the car this time!

I feel sorry all the holiday makers trying to make the most of this weather. Let's hope for better weather this weekend for not only those away but so that we can crack on with cutting our wheat.

Off the Lead

Monty always enjoys his walks which are mainly on the farm. There is nothing he likes more than a run through the fields. Who can blame him with fields like this although I don't know whether he really appreciates the view.

He keeps a good eye on where I am.

I do love to see him running through the grass.

Fruits in the Garden

The Victoria plums are nearly ripe. We have already had one or two. Sadly despite the fantastic blossom we had the tree has not looked very healthy since then. It has struggled on to produce its fruit but I fear that we may be about to lose our tree.

Meanwhile the apple trees look more healthy with a good crop of Bramleys.

Then eating apples that are ready.

Including the Katy apples.

I have been round picking some to keep us going!

Freshly picked apple anyone?

Fr

Fruit in the Fields

It is a sure sign that Summer is nearly over as fruit begins to appear in the hedgerows. There are lot of blackberries coming on but generally they are only just beginning to ripen. It's a bit early as yet to carry a bag with for a little bit of picking as I walk the dog.

The hawthorn berries are ripe.

There are also sloes in the hedges. I shan't be picking them as I am not a fan of Sloe Gin.

The Beauty of Raindrops

The amount of rain we have had has certainly kept the garden moist. I slipped out after the rain to catch those drops on the flowers.

My Agapanthus from a bulb from Lidil.

A plant we bought in St Merryn, Cornwall at a craft fair during the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. Not sure of its name. 

A slightly weatherworn fuchsia.

My sweet peas this year are from seeds I bought at the Chelsea Flower Show last year. They are not flowering profusely but the flowers are big and are well perfumed. 

 I was given this rose at Christmas in a pot. I have planted it outside and it is now flowering.

I have a good selection of Cosmos grown from seed.

I bought this on a market stall a couple of weeks ago. Love the colour.

When it's Rainy and Cold

What do you do when it's tipping down with rain outside? Find something warm and solid to snuggle up to!

                         

                    

They have a love hate relationship. Socks loves Monty who simply tolerates the attention!

Frequently I hear a moan and groan from Monty which is a sure indicator that he has been sat on but yesterday he just put up with it!