5 in 5 - MELANIE - June 2016

Melanie is my friend who lives in Australia and she loves photography.  Every month since the start of this challenge Melanie has taken part in this monthly meme and as she doesn't have her own blog I post here. I love that we have found a way for her to take part! This month is a little later than usual as I received Melanie's photos while I was on a sailing trip and I have only just got home. But without further wait, over to you Melanie:

Here I am with a June 5 in 5 photo which is back to my favourite theme of flowers.  On June 5^th I actually completely forgot about 5 in 5 which wasn’t surprising as I was over in England with my husband visiting our daughter who lives in Southampton.  On June 6^th our daughter was due to receive an award from the Royal Geographical Society which was the reason for us being in England.  Hence June 6^th was mainly what occupied my mind.  However on June 5^th the three of us visited some gardens near Southampton called Houghton Lodge.  You can check out the gardens on their website:- www.houghtonlodge.co.uk.  The blurb on their website says ‘everyone leaves with a sense of its ageless tranquillity and special magic’.  Indeed one of the things we felt as we walked around the grounds was a great peacefulness.  Walking in a garden and taking lots of photos meant that despite not having set out to do a specific 5 minute photo taking at a specific place it was still easy for me to sort out five photos.  I use a digital camera and all my shots have a time on them so all I had to do was chose one five minute period where I took several photos.  The period I chose was when we were near one of the gates of the walled garden.  You can see that gate in the bottom left hand photo.  In that chosen period I took ten photos three of which were of the same flowers (the one which has the bee in it on the top right hand corner).  I love taking flowers with bees in them and this particular flower was very popular with bees.  I decided against putting three of the same flower in my choice of five and hope you like the three others that I chose.  There was certainly a wide choice of subjects for the photos as well as a walled garden and numerous flower beds there was an orchid House, a lovely vegetable patch, a smoking topiary dragon, lama in the meadow and swans on the River Tess.  Now back in Adelaide with July 5^th not too far away I must put on my thinking cap for July photos.

While Melanie and her husband were in UK we managed to meet up for a day and it was so good to spend time together. We visited an arboretum and interestingly there was a large area designated to plants from Australia so Melanie was able to tell me about her own visits to eucalyptus trees and how the koalas tuck themselves into the fork of a branch to sleep during the day. I never realised that these, and kangaroos are both nocturnal. Quite sensible when you think of it, coming out to eat when the day grows cooler. Though Melanie tells me this has a knock on effect of kangaroos being active at night when driving in the dark is hazardous.   

I mentioned last month that I had planted lavender and geraniums by my front door, and that I have just returned from a sailing trip. In the time I have been away my plants have grown considerably. In fact I thought I had gone through a time warp! The pots are now looking established and the tomato plants I planted out a day before I left look incredibly strong and healthy. Other parts of the garden look like a jungle and I have blackcurrants to pick. I love this time of year in the garden, when everything looks luxuriant and plentiful. The rain and occasional sunny day has helped.  I hope your own garden is looking good and bringing pleasure.

If this has inspired you to pick up your camera and take part the next challenge starts on 5th July. It's great fun and you can see more posts here. And if you want to know more 5in5 this post should answer any questions and give other information that you need.

Hopefully Melanie will be back next month and I look forward to you joining us. Thank you for popping by, it is great to have your company!

5 in 5 - June 2016 - A canal is created

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have

taken in 5 minutes.

Last month Borqna shared 5 photos that she took standing in the same position, panning round.   And I thought, what a great idea!   I love how we are inspired by each other and so while I was recently in Wales, standing on top of an aqueduct, I admired the view and remembered this. It seemed a good opportunity to take my own photos for this month, and I did. But looking through my collection now, there are other photos that I want to share, so I will keep Borqna's idea for another time. 

Still in Wales, we went to visit Horseshoe Falls. I expected a waterfall, whereas this was in fact a weir, designed by Thomas Telford, and built to divert the River Dee and to create a canal. I love anything to do with water and was fascinated by this. I have sometimes wondered how canals originate, so after parking the camper we walked down a beautiful meadow yellow with buttercups, to the waters edge.

You can see how the water on the upper level was diverted through  a narrow set of gates that filtered the water.

It then entered a brick building, inside a turbine slowed the water down.

And when the water is released the other side it forms the source of the Llangollen Canal. I now knew the answer as to how a canal is created!  A couple miles up stream is Llangollen Wharf and the aqueduct, it is a beautiful area to visit and lots to see.

Further up stream is a second aqueduct, at Chirk. We did a lot of walking of waterways and the weather was kind to us even if the clouds looked a bit ominous. If you've not visited the area, we recommend it. The steam train from Llangollen was also worth doing, 

maybe I'll tell you about that another time.  

..............

Thank you for visiting, and to Eileen, Melanie, Miriam, Maggie, Mary-Lou, Karen and Borqna for joining in last month. It is always lovely to have company and if you feel inspired to take part yourself here is what you do:

1.  Choose a location.
2.  Have your camera ready.
3.  Set a timer for 5 minutes (I use my mobile phone).
4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.
5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool below.  

   Please note:

You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos to the link and you can take  your photos any time. They do not have to be taken or posted on 5th!

If you would like more information please go to the original post here where you will find more.

There are two links that have missed the deadline this month but I do not want to exclude them, so do go visit these too:

Karen  and  Melanie

A Scavenger Hunt - sent from Canada

My friend Jen made a scavenger hunt for my grand daughters.  It arrived from Canada as a surprise and she'd put a lot of thought into it with a list of things to find and do. So I decided to wait for the right opportunity and it came back in February, when my daughter suggested a visit to a country park. I went with bags for collecting and the list in hand and the country park had a Stick Man trail so it was the perfect time and place.

What better way to start than with sticks in hand!

These are good for drawing in mud and leaving trails....












There were other things to do in the country park that worked well with our scavenger hunt....  like making a nest out of sticks.

Thick ice on the pond and puddles didn't stop the girls finding more!

And there was lots of bark rubbings to collect. 

Of course, there was lots of time for climbing and fun as well!

When we got home we had hot chocolate to warm us up and then we emptied all our bags.  We had a lovely hoard and everything was crossed off the list that Jen had sent.  Then it was time to make things and follow the rest of her ideas. I'll show you what we did next time.

I've been planning to share this post for ages and it was good to look out the photos and remind myself of this day. It might be June now, but it's not a lot warmer! In fact, friends have put their heating back on and we've been tempted to do the same.  Let's hope summer pops her head up soon!  Thanks for popping by and I'll be back with part 2 next week.