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!