Christinap

As you may have seen already in a thread in the FunTrivia Lounge, we have learned with great sadness that Christinap is now seriously ill and is not expected to recover. Chris has been a regular contributor to the photo threads over the past few years; she shared bits of her life with us, from her treasured garden and beloved dog to air show crowds and a walk down a country lane. Over on Quizzyland she was a team leader and a prolific author; she is also a lovely lady and a good friend, and she will be much missed on both parts of the site.

I was going to post this in a separate thread but as I want to ask you to put your comments, if any, in another thread and only in that thread, it seemed a bit strange to create a new one. The main thread is here. I think it would be helpful if we put our comments in that one thread, so that if any of Chris's family and friends do want to read what FT people think they only have to look there. Thank you.

We went on a cruise with friends earlier this year. The maid assigned to our cabin was an expert in towel folding.

Red berries in a local park

Harrow on the Hill from Kingsbury

A bit of quirky Americana... This is a sign along Route 93 just outside of Wikieup, Arizona, which is a small town between Wickenburg and Kingman (and if that doesn't help, it's between Phoenix and Las Vegas). The sign was allegedly put up in the 1990s by a newcomer to the area who then left and abandoned it. Someone must be taking care of it now, because it was very faded that last time I saw it a year or so ago.

I love that sign!

Last year I posted a lot (a lot!) of pictures of my garden while it was being landscaped and the growth of this flowerbed in particular. I did put a few things in as plants - a couple of small shrubs to add a bit of early height, some bare-rooted asters, some lupins - but mostly I just used a pack of mixed seeds. At the end of the year I pulled up the obviously dead stalks, raked any patches of bare earth, and left it. And this year... it has been a riot of colour all year. I've barely touched it apart from a bit of weeding here and there. Not bad for a packet of seeds.

It looks just lovely Flopsy. You have no idea (well maybe a much travelled rabbit does,) how lovely it is to see real English flowers and shrubs. After 40 odd years of bourgainvillae, hibiscus, orchids, morning glory etc I long for primulas and larkspurs and delphiniums. I have roses but they open and die in a day. I don't miss the snow, but I do miss the flowers from cooler places. So thanks to all who post pictures of their gorgeous English gardens here.

Not quite an English garden but a lovely little yellowhammer.

I thought that was a fat budgie Howie, they are pretty similar.

And by pure chance another country garden on the edge of Wiltshire

A fat budgie? More like a puzzled canary wondering who left that egg there. We have yellowhammers here, they're the ones who sit in a bush and chirp "little bit of bread and nooooooooo cheese" as you walk by. John Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, wrote about the yellowhammer here. For the sake of Americans reading the poem I should point out that the 'cowboy' was not a man with lariat and Winchester rifle riding a quarterhorse - just a boy who looked after the cows.

I took this pic at around 2 a.m. and thought I'd get a better shot around three when the eclipse would be full, and red, and dramatic... when I woke up at four, the eclipse looked like this but flipped the other way round; I'd slept right through the lovely bit in the middle!

Luckily I was waiting for the radio to call me back so meant I watched the whole thing. They also tweeted the exact red moon I saw as well.

A traditional Southern Region station in Surrey

not sure I would classify any of those plants as germane to the UK, Ren. Most cultivars of delphiniums today we can thank France for as far back as 1850 and they also grow in Africa (mountain regions) as a native plant and elsewhere. Primulas grow (natively) in a lot of places in Europe, as well as Turkey, the Crimea and Canada (and no, no colonists brought the native ones here). However, there are a lot of older folks in British Columbia who covet these sorts of plants because they say they remind them of "home", so the sentimental connection is completely understandable. Gardens are changing in that province though, no doubt partially because of the large influx of Asian immigrants (it helps that many of the things the latter are familiar with will actually grow in that province lol). There are people in the rest of my country (other than perhaps southern Ontario) who would die for the lovely and bountiful planting choices you have where you live. Am very jealous of your garden Ren. I want to move lol

flopsy: that's about what the picture looked like that I took. Couldn't find my battery for the camera that would actually take a night/time delay picture until the eclipse was almost over (my "bite" was on the other side though...). Quite a good picture, despite your attempts to downgrade it verbally. Moon shots are notoriously ridiculously hard to get unless you have a camera attached to a telescope. I didn't miss the red phase in person though (was just frustrated that I couldn't capture it). Of course, my husband always says that the best pictures are taken with your eyes. Yes, I understand that he's just trying to make me feel better. Sometimes I even like him in moments like those lol

Mother Goose: probably the cutest towel fold I've ever seen. The traditional "swans" get so boring lol. Fun pic.

A typical country pub complete with thatched roof on the edge of Wiltshire

Another view of the Cape Reinga lighthouse.

Snap!

Howie. Seriously, you need to think beyond Calendars (although I'd be happy to buy one, even if it's expired timewise).

That's odd Chavs, I have no recollection of leaves going red in patches before but they are along the whole road I took them and yours. It can't all be my bad memory?

I would love to be a photographer as a profession but I don't know much about it nor have a good camera lol

There will be another calendar this year, should be more copies than the run of 14 last year lol

Talking of calendars, it's been morning in the Galapagos Islands for a while so it must be October everywhere...