Category: summer

gardening · gratitude · herbs · lemon · mangoes · pecan nuts · summer

Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Abundance.

Joanne1 Comment
Abundance

This past week has been a rather hectic one for me, with an abundance of work, mostly paper work, taking up most of my waking hours each day.

As a result I have missed out on posting anything here for quite a few days. I’ve even missed the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge for last week!

Now, where in the rules does it say a photo can’t be posted a couple of days late?… No where?… That’s what I thought!

So here I am with my photo, which represents last week’s theme ~ “abundance”.

This photo was taken last year, when our garden produced a massive abundance of extremely tasty food; tomatoes, lemons, limes, mangoes, pecan nuts, chillies, and a number of my favourite herbs, including rosemary, basil, sage, parsley and thyme.

This time last year, the planets must have aligned perfectly, giving us a bumper crop of absolutely everything we grow! The right amount of rain and just enough sunshine, with the right amount of heat beating down upon the earth.

This summer, however, Mother Nature has not been quite so kind to us. Luckily, I have my photos from last year, showing my garden in all of its lush glory with an abundance of edibles, with which to reminisce, until the perfect weather conditions return again.

And the perfect weather conditions will return. Mother Nature is kind that way. 🙂

son · summer

“I Don’t Like Spiders and Snakes….”

Joanne12 Comments
Female Huntsman, found in the pantry.

Along with his box of breakfast cereal this morning, my son discovered this eight legged monster, lurking around the shelves of our pantry.

She joins the list of “visitors” to our house this week; including the other two cute guys…the green frog and the little baby hare.

I’d hardly call this visitor cute, although we do manage to co-exist quite okay with our spider population.

We are sure that this spider is a female Huntsman, with the males having somewhat longer legs and smaller bodies.

My son put the spider in a glass jar, which is where she is in this photo. She posed patiently for me whilst I played around with the settings on my camera, finally finding what I was looking for. My clever little camera has a setting for taking photos behind glass…perfect!

It seems that we humans are not the only creatures being rattled by the heat we have experienced of late. The small creature population appear to be turning up in the most unexpected of places!

son · summer

Salad by Candlelight

Joanne2 Comments

Salad by Candlelight

7.30 pm, Monday night ~ As I hand write by candlelight at my kitchen table, I feel inclined to use a fountain pen, if only I had one!

Outside the window next to me is a glimmer of lightness, enough to assist the candle in providing me with the light I need to see the whiteness of my sheet of paper clearly.

Only a matter of a few weeks ago we lost power for a number of hours. This time around, the candles we had rummaged through the cupboards in search of back then were close at hand.

How different daily life would have been, pre-electricity days. For one thing, meals would have had to be prepared earlier than they are in my house!

When we lost power tonight I made a dash for the kitchen and began poking around in the dark vegetable crisper in the bottom of the fridge, hoping the salad vegetables would be easily located in the dim light.

Taking photos was a matter of “point the camera and hope for the best”! The salad appeared to be quite presentable, having been prepared with more “feel” than sight, with the assistance of my now well-used candles.

8 pm ~ With the power restored rather fast tonight, much to the relief of Adam, who found it necessary to resort to playing computer games, rather than talking with his friends on Skype, I felt a tinge of sadness.

Without electricity, the house was silent, all but for the sounds of the family’s voices, as we talked amongst ourselves.

No television, no chance of the phone ringing, just writing with my pen and paper.

And salad by candlelight.

Computer Games

freedom · friends · hare · summer

Where the Wild Creatures Live

Joanne4 Comments
A wild baby hare, spending the day inside, in the coolness of our shower.

We had another unexpected little garden visitor here this morning. This creature, as opposed to the frogs and cicadas, was a quiet little thing.

At first we were not sure whether it was a baby rabbit or a hare. Either way, it would not have survived the day where it was, out in the full strength midday sun, all alone.

We put the little fellow into our shower recess with a saucer of cool water, while we scoured the internet for information on him.

By later this afternoon we had concluded that he was a wild baby hare. If we tried to domesticate him, he would have no doubt died within a short space of time. Hares need to be free to survive.

We often see fully grown hares around the garden, so it would be logical to believe that is what he is.

According to the information that we read, he needed to be returned to the garden at the end of the day, when the heat of the day had subsided; to around the same place he had been found.

We found a sheltered area, with plenty of hiding places and shelter from the elements, and left him with another shallow dish of water.

It would be nice to think he will continue to survive in our garden. I’m quite happy to share our garden with all of these harmless, wild creatures.

Such a little cutie!
challenges · summer

Weekly Photo Challenge ~ Curiosity

Joanne2 Comments
Where do these stairs and pathways lead to?

This week’s WordPress photo challenge theme is “curiosity” and what a powerful word that is!

Curiosity can to lead to many a new adventure; it opens up avenues for learning new things and can lead to many new and formerly unexplored paths.

The photo I have chosen to feature today shows pathways and stairs which I have yet to explore. They only became known to me after I came home one day with a series of photos I had taken at Point Danger last month, and I spotted this little nook as I looked through the photos on the computer.

I’m curious as to where the paths will lead and how the ocean will photograph at close range, with the waves breaking around the rocks.

When the heat-haze has cleared up a bit, hopefully during next week, my trusty little camera and I will be finding and exploring the site I have zoomed in on by editing the photo on the computer.

Because, well…I’m just plain curious! 🙂