I hate the fact that the garden is usually so dreary during the winter months, with all the herbaceous plants dying back, and few shrubs keeping their leaves. So this year I planted up some pots and containers with plants and bulbs to show colour all through the winter. I’ve arranged these such that they can then be replanted for the summer… What’s not to like!
One of my winter ‘evening’ projects this year is to build a small model railway. I’d made a half-hearted attempt to build one previously, but it didn’t really work out… The challenge this year is to build a completely portable layout, so this one measures just 50cm x 50cm. It means that realism is somewhat compromised, but it’s still possible (just) to have a continuous track, with a couple of sidings. 
… since I last played chess. Can’t say I was brilliant at it, but did enjoy the challenge. Came across this set while we were tidying up, and decided to set it up on the coffee table. But will I play again?
Today’s plan was to get some jobs done in the garden, but the weather had other ideas… Several times I went outside, got set up with tools etc, only to have to beat a hasty retreat when the heavens opened. The changeable weather did however yield an interesting sky. This was the view from the top of our garden. 
Not the statue by Antonio Canova, but the three iconic buildings that dominate the Pier Head in Liverpool, and represent the maritime history that the city is famous for. Three merged long exposure shots taken on my Sony camera rather than my ‘usual’ iPhone setup. 
… to him who waits. So the sunsets every night of our holiday so far have been pretty rubbish – well, that is, with absolutely no cloud in the sky, the sun has just slipped away leaving just a faint glow – no drama at all. With some intermittent cloud today (our last day), it looked more promising so off I set to the lighthouse at Maspalomas to see what was in store… And boy, did it deliver! This is just an iPhone shot – hopefully I’ll have better still when I get to look at my Sony A7iii images on the computer. But for now, I’m happy…
Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, And so are you.. Thus the rhyme goes – apparently it dates back to 1590 !
My wife loves roses, and red happens to match the decor of our kitchen, so they are a pretty common sight there. Sadly we don’t seem to be very good at growing them in the garden, but there’s always the florists or supermarket…
Snowdrops are one of the first signs of Spring in the garden, although they appear to have emerged even earlier than usual. They are pretty hardy though, so should survive the cold days still in store for us over the next month or so…
I’m not a fan of house plants – actually I really dislike them… However, at Christmas, my 90 year old aunt gave us an Amaryllis bulb, and it seemed to be the decent thing to do to plant it and see what happened. Well, against the odds, it did grow, and this is the second flush of flowers from it – pretty impressive from something so unloved…
Driving up to Doncaster today to see a relative in hospital, I decided to make a short detour to Lumsdale Falls on the edge of the Peak District. As seems usual each time I go there, it was raining, but this made for some nice highlights on the rocks. I took a few shots with my phone, but the Sony A7iii comes into it’s own with a subject like this.
Lumsdale Falls – Sony A7iii & 24-105mm
One Day At A Time... 