Welcome to August!
I am not locking July's thread till it has passed for everyone.

ugh - I'm glad you're on the ball, Ren! I must look at calenders more often!

Sheer luck I was with it this morning.

Sign seen on a tour bus recently, it tickled my fancy and set the tone for the tour, which was an absolute howl:

haha ... do you think it means that he actually got offered a goat at some time???

Here's another sign from the same bus (sorry for the poor photo, we were right down the back, and it was right up the front):



I guess the goats must have sensitised his nose ...

Hilarious, I hope that went for the driver too.

Love the signs! What a trip that must have been.

Got all my machines talking to each other again, Yay! Here's a view of Toronto's Old City Hall, taken from directly in front of the new one (which is over 40 years old now...). I was in the city last week to take my documents to the passport office, so if I feel like a holiday out of the country, I'm ready.

While I was shopping in my local supermarket a few weeks ago, I noticed that they sold sushi. I've had it a few times before so I thought it might make a nice change from my usual lunch. It's really quite nice and I've even made an attempt at using chopsticks for authenticity!

A part of the Cornish coastline from a few weeks ago. It was lovely!

My granddaughter said this sign was for me! Seen in Ramsey, Isle of Man last month.

We recently had a week's holiday in central Australia. While in Alice Springs, we visited the Desert Park. This little fellow is a brown kite which I managed to capture on the wing during the Birds of Prey show. He's catching food that the ranger is throwing to him.

Douglas, Isle of Man

Can you spot the thorny devil (a type of lizard)? Good camouflage, don't you think? In case you were wondering, he is facing you!

I can see him!

This is the church at the top of the road in Temple Fortune



I'd like to know how long the maximum bus journey is there, it's not good for you to hold on for too long. And they can never prove who it was anyway...

Oh my gosh, who nicked the bath?
Cats dont cope well with renovations!

Now this is what I call a house

Looking for lunch...

Auntie - I know what you mean. We are almost finished our bathroom renovations. Everytime a tradesman came (electrician, tiler, plumber etc), we had to shut our cats in their cattery (to keep them from getting out). They did not like it one little bit!

Satguru - I much prefer the house behind it!

This is a Sturt's Desert Pea. It is the floral emblem of South Australia and it is very commonly seen in central Australia. I photographed this one at King's Canyon. I've always loved these flowers but this was the first time I had actually seen one in real life.

A Dreamtime legend tells of a woman who ran away with her lover, rather than marry the old man to whom she was promised. They were tracked down and slaughtered, and from their bruised and bloodied bodies grew the Sturt Pea.



A colourful patch in my winter garden. Those strelitzias badly need dead-heading, but I'll do it when the weather warms up.

A craggy bit of Cornish coast...

A old typewriter from the Jersey German hospital

I think we're all wired to like old or modern houses, it seems to be quite distinct in most people. One more from Hampstead.

The poison garden at Blarney Castle

The Poison Garden looks really intriguing!



This is a close-up of the rock surface of Uluru or Ayer's Rock. If you've only seen it in photos, it looks like a smooth red rock. However, it is actually grey sandstone with a "flaky" red surface (the red being rust, or iron oxide).

When the beach is pebbly it's kind of hard to make sandcastles. Here's what my gang made instead, our very own 'Stonehenge':

The 1930s offices of Thames Water at the sewage farm in Isleworth. It's all built like this and has landscaped gardens surrounding it.

Lovely photos, everyone.
Love both the rock photos, lol @ stonehenge!
We have Sturt Peas here and they've just started to flower.
Must get my camera out and do some catching up!

Ducks on the little river that flows under the building above

Peel Castle, Isle of Man

Beach-henge! I love it.

I photographed this lovely bush in the garden outside our hotel unit at Yulara (Ayer's Rock). I asked about it at the hotel reception but nobody could identify it. Can anyone tell me what it is?

Saw this fully working 1906 car on the Isle of Man.

MG, I think the shrub you posted is a Templetonia.



This lovely cymbidium was given to my daughter by a friend. I'm minding it until she has room in her car to take it home. I'm getting very fond of it......

I've just found some more pictures to scan in, this is a small road of modern houses round the corner to where I used to live in Stanmore about 15 years ago

Buddleia (Butterfly Bush)
August 2010
Nanaimo, British Columbia

Hey Shelley! Nice to see you back. I've missed you and your photos.

Here's another plant I photographed in Alice Springs that I am trying to identify. Can anyone help? It's the last one, I promise!

P.S. Thanks Auntie!

It's Indigofera australis, I think.

looks like some kind of wild sweet pea or vetch?

Kangaroos come in two colours - red and grey. Here's one of each. These fellows reside at the Desert Park in Alice Springs.

Glad to see you uber quality piccis back again Shelley... love the Buddleia, where's the flutterbies?

Think that's an indigofera too... had one many moons ago, but its a bit frost tender!

Good to seeyou back Shelley.

This is the bank of the reservoir/river just round the corner from me in West Hendon

thanks satguru, mother goose sherry, i finally figured out how to get back in ... lol. i dunno, we have a real shortage of butterflies here for some reason, wasn`t any even near there. those kangaroos look mighty comfortable there. and i love all the wildflowers on the riverbank, so natural.

marigolds across the street ... `with friend`

This little car isn't as impressive as that 1906 beauty, but I liked it

Sunrise over Ayer's Rock (Uluru).

Sunset over Keynsham (near Bristol) taken from the window of a pub.
(There was a pub quiz going on. No other reason for me to be in such a place.)
As you can see, the road outside is quite a fast one!

Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
The Leprechaun Museum, Dublin

Neat pics, love the colour of the car ... and the sunsets are gorgeous. I wish I had known about the Leprechaun Museum when i was in Dublin, i would have loved to see it! There really is a pot o gold eh? :O)

Hydrangeas by the front entrance of my building:

-

This is an arrangement of Australian native plants which flower during the winter.
MotherGoose may recognise the Templetonia near the foreground.

One of my Dad's favoUrite flowers was the Red Hot Poker.
He's been gone for nearly 15 years now but the plant is flourishing nicely and now stands over 6 feet tall.

Typical houses in Temple Fortune where I wouldn't mind living if I could afford them.

I understand your feelings, Martin cube.
Much of my garden evolved from seeds, cuttings and plants struggling for survival in jam tins, all given with affection by people who have now passed on.
I treasure them all and remember the givers fondly.

The pot of gold was leprechaun size! LOL
The hydrangeas are beautiful.

Those are very rich looking houses Satuguru. Could see living there nicely.

I can see them being your Dad's favourites Martin, I used to grow Red-Hot Pokers, they are majestic looking and bees and butterflies love them.

Neat herd of seagulls bhs ... how did you get them all to pose like that? lol. Now you tell me the pot-o-gold was miniature! Might as well scratch those plans for a heist now ....

This isnt a very sharp photo ... it is of the B.C. Ferry Terminal in the city at Departure Bay ... the shot is taken from across the bay on the beach. The land mass you see to the left is Newcastle Island, a stones throw from us.
.

It would seem that snails like the Red Hot Poker plant too:

Digitalis, one of the "poison" plants at Blarney Castle's poison garden

Here's one end of the Welsh Harp reservoir along the road from me in Hendon.

sorry I haven't posted for a while, given the old camera a break for a bit. It has been great looking at yours though. Here is a paint swirl my son did when clearing up after an art activity.
Ohhhh look at the pretty colours!

Hope those 'pretty colours' stayed pretty much where they were supposed to, Copago!!!

Great pics everyone!

Jill ,next time just take a print or two
lay a piece of paper on the swirl
Very effective
.

Victorian building, Douglas, Isle of Man

A modern house in Surrey trying very hard to look old

I've been up in the attic for the last couple of days. We're having new insulation
put in so we have to clear everything out by Friday morning. Over 50 years worth!
On the plus side, we keep discovering loads of 'family treasures' and one of the
things that have brought back most memories is a book - The ABC of the RAF. It
must have belonged to my dad and was published about 1943. It's packed full of
interesting information (some of which I thought would have been top secret with
WWII still going on). There are a lot of great photographs as well. I wish I could
post the whole book! But I'll stick to the front cover:



(And the back:

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r159/martin_cube/IMG00127-20100817-1454-1.jpg )

Martin, that is beautiful! What a great treasure to find!

That snail is soooo weird there, lol. Lovely colours copago. All these wonderful homes ... everything is so 'boxy' here where i live, nothing exciting like these. Digitalis is gorgeous, isn't it? Like little fairy bells, lined with leopard spots, Antiques road show coming up for your magazine .... will you still talk to us when you are a billionaire ? :P lol. Neat stuff. And i love the name of the reservoir.

The 102 leaves East Finchley station, my local one from 1965-93, and although heading to where I used to live I got the 143 heading the other way (despite being far less frequent) as it went to the top of the hill and saved me walking up.

However big London is if you go north 9 miles to Totteridge you hit the end, and it's just as same as everywhere beyond.

Another road I like in Golders Green, plenty of room in these houses as well.

Spotted this fellow taking a nap in the sun on the guardrail of my deck this afternoon.

More treasures from my attic clear-out. This is one of the plastic models
my dad made and kept. It's clear that a lot of care went into making it.



It's a 'Lago-Talbot' in case you're wondering.

Standley Chasm (Northern Territory, central Australia).

The flowers are back in what was my local park

Another of my dad's plastic models. This (if I recall correctly) is the City of Truro steam engine.

great pix. that squirrel looks mighty tuckered. neat models martin. wow, look at the wee man, sure puts the sheer size of the canyon in perspective. beautiful marigolds satguru.

this was taken with an optex digital microscope (a recent birthday gift for someone) ... it has a capability of 200X ...
http://b2b.gentec-intl.com/GentecInc/Support/4336305optex_digimag200_sell_sheet_eng.pdf

the canadian penny shown here is 25X.

--

Great pics, everybody! that chasm looks amazing as does the close up of your Canadian penny!

Autumn is on the way and the blackberries are out (at least here in Brittany). I collected a lovely set of stings and bramble scratches with my youngest yesterday, but also collected enough berries to make four pots of lovely blackberry jelly:

Oh YUM!

This is the path the Wombles use to get in and out of Wimbledon Common

Now you have me humming 'underground, overground, wombling free ...'

If you want blackberry jam or jelly, you've got to start with some blackberries:

I do like this sporty little number (but don't ask me what it is! : ) )

It looks like an AC Cobra, if I could see an oval grille that would confirm it. Good to see more models turning up, they're all about the same age we are.

I'll dig it out & take a full-frontal photo for you David. The model car that is.
I suspect that it's older than me & was made before I came along & took up all my dad's time.

In the main street of Alice Springs - I thought of all my FT friends!

I just love that squirell - too funny.

And I hate SatG for getting that bloody song back into my head ..

we've been relly busy lately doing sheep work. I took this snap this morning .. really should have turned the flash off and stopped them looking like demons.


the wombles of Wimbeldon Common are we .. grrrr!

Here's the view of the model car from the front for you SatG:



I've compared it to some pictures of AC Cobras & have to say I'm not sure.
But what do I know about cars?

That is a nice one- the side is very much like the Cobra but it's the previous one I think is a lot nicer, the AC Ace, although I did need the book to see the difference I have to admit.

Cool sheepies .... and um,santanna? i hate to tell you this, but someone lifted one of your jelly pots ... how can something soooo good be such a pain to pick? Mother Goose, your signpost reminds me of the one in the *Mash* series cool.
nice photos everyone.

This is the monstrance (which holds the Host... the Real Presence of Christ)on the altar in a small chapel located inside the very old St. Peter's RC church downtown. Perpetual Adoration is held here 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday. As the Eucharist can not be left alone, there must always be someone there, and they schedule people who desire to spend an hour a week. There are six small pews behind me that you can not see.

--

Our dogs enjoying a bit of shade under the plum tree. So far we've picked around 5 pounds of plums and there are plenty left.

Lovely. How is all Alsatians look so intelligent?
My Gnawra looks so loopy. She is a sweety but not so bright. It has been hot lately and she gets ice cubes. Always insists on taking one to her bed "to keep for later".

As you see she has quite an inane grin.

Do they eat the plums??? beautiful creatures.

Another shot with the digital microscope. This is some detail of a canadian 20 dollar bill ... the dark line is where the bill had been folded ...
---

apologies for not being very clear but here is a feral cat that has come visiting lately. He's gotten so used to us that he doesn't even try to hide anymore. We let him hang around as he's keeping the rabbits in teh yard under control .. looks like he's looking at one now ...

Thanks for identifying the car David, I was wondering what it was.

Something else I found in the attic was this crane of mine. I can remember playing with it when
I was little. It's a bit wonky now, not surprising considering how old it is. (The same applies to me.
) Amazingly it still works though wasn't much help in lowering heavy stuff down from the loft.

I didn't realise the car didn't have the name under it Martin, if there are any more send them over on Facebook and I'll do the same thing (if I can).
I just found a little box of photos hiding in a cupboard, and besides some I did wonder where they were one small group appeared to have not been printed but have the means to get them from the negatives now. There were a few of these and not even sure where I took them although from about 2001.

A welcome sight as our wet and chilly winter draws to a close.

A while ago, Ren sent me a recipe for a "five minute chocolate cake", done in the microwave, which is absolutely delicious! I managed to take a photo of it today ...



(The recipe suggests you make it in a coffee mug, but you get more in a Pyrix bowl! )

Chiswick bridge over the river Thames

What it looked like "plated up"

yum! look at all the cakes! that's a lovely bridge satguru, i like the wild
grasses in the foreground.

a "stormy" sunset going on a couple nights ago, it threatened rain as you
can see (top right); but it was very spotty and didn't last long.

---

Wow, mc_shellsie! That picture looks like a painting, it's really beautiful.

Thank you Shelly, if you watch the annual boat race you should see the river up to here where they finish.

Another view of Esher Common

This is a prairie primrose. It blooms white in the morning as as the day wears on, it slowly dies and turns pink. It lives less than one day. The next morning another flower blooms and if you are really lucky like my mother, 25 will appear. My mother gave me a slip of hers that she obtained from the coolees where she lives. I transplanted it last year, and was quite surprised that it blossomed this year.

Wise advice on this notice, we should all refuse to be put down the CHUTE.



(You would have thought that for such an important notice, they'd have learnt how to spell!)

Any ideas as to what this is? Brought into school today. It is heavy like it is a fruit.

Sleekness. Almost sexy. Er, uh, I swear the dents that are in it now came from the water, yeah, that's it.

Shaped, glassed, sanded, and in my hands within 2 weeks. Not bad at all. Keeping in mind with other threads re: buying American, custom-made American as you can get product, no buying Chinese popout boards here!

That being said, I'll probably snap it within a couple weeks.

Oh yeah, I thought you would all love the tailpad. Titled: Joker/Nemesis (this transcends this website - I'm always cracking jokes in the lineup and I also getting every wave within reach, taking far, far, far more than my fair share but so goes life, hence the nemesis side of that). When he saw it, my friend Tony just shook his head and said, yep, that's you all right.

Have decided it is from the ginger family as it smells quite strongly of that.

It might be a Torch Ginger Ren. If so, the petals should open out from the base.

Thanks Auntie. It is really fascinating

The pond in Avenue House gardens in Finchley

This is the "International Bus Terminal" south of Alice Springs (it's fairly close to being the centre of Australia) on the Lasseter Highway. What you see is what you get - there is no building or shelter.

Lots of great pics, everyone!

Here's Precious, helping with the recycling...

Liz, I love seeing pictures of Precious My kitty does the same thing, if there's a box, a bag, anything, she'll get inside and stay there for a while. I also love the way they look at you when you see they're in there, it's like they're saying "yes, I'm inside this box, is there a problem with that"? lol

The shops at the quiet end of Golders Green. The modern building is an old people's home and has just been finished. I like it but doesn't really fit in out in the suburbs.

All across France thousands of kids will be taking the same route as mine today: back to school:

I looked at that and thought, "Oh, I wish my Mum had somehow dated all those 'back to school' photos!" Then I remembered that you are a scrapbooker!


By the way, is there going to be a September thread?