Have a Very Spooky Halloween...

31 October 2010

I hope everyone enjoys a fun and very spooky Halloween...

This photograph is taken from my Sasha Story Halloween Party hope you enjoy it...

Sparkling Grass...

31 October 2010

I love these dainty grass seed heads...

they reminded me so much of the sparklers we used to burn on Halloween night when we were children...

there is just nothing I love more than the verge and the hedgerows along the lane on Cavehill... it gives me endless inspiration and I never tire of photographing it...

Amazing balloons...

30 October 2010

I was in the Victoria Centre in Belfast yesterday...

Noticed these huge spiders hanging from the roof... looking very like they were ready for some lunch...

Amazing what can be made using balloons...

The ghost was also spooktacular...

And sported its own smaller sized spiders...

What a tangled web we weave...

30 October 2010

I have always thought it rather mean to spiders the old saying "What a tangled web we weave when at first we begin to deceive..."  after all there really is nothing tangled about the beautiful Spiders web which always looks like a perfect structural enterprise to me... on the other hand no one could say the same about the dead ivy in the photo above which is very definitely a tangled web...  the ivy is dead because the roots were burned in the Spring time...

I love the way the ivy has spiralled up the old stump...

Frosty Nettles...

28 October 2010

I took these photos of nettles covered in frost on Monday morning...  most of the nettles are dying back now but I did spot a few young plants amongst the grass in the verge...

Apart from the fact that they can sting... I really love nettles... brilliant for butterflies (apparently although I cannot remember the last time I saw a caterpillar on the small nettle patch in our garden... on the other hand they seem happy to clear some of the other plants of every single leaf...)

Afterall no one can deny that they are really truly beautiful and for once we have a plant which can actually take care of itself...  pretty impressive really...

I also remember my mum making nettle soup sometimes when we were children... when picking it is just a matter of picking them firmly low on the stalk and avoiding the edge of the leaves... 

best picked when young in the Spring...  and helps to wear gloves...

Although having said this it is probably best to have a couple of docken leaves to hand just in case of a sting...

Like Father... Like Son...

27 October 2010

I couldn't resist photographing this father and son as I walked past their field this morning...

They were just so very alike and having taken an interest in what I was doing for a moment went back to their own interests a minute later...

Frosty Grass...

25 october 2010

My first entry to Macro Monday which should please Pip... Actually it sounds just my thing... I love taking close up shots of anything that will stay still for a moment...

As we started the walk this morning the grass was crisp with its coating of frosted dew...

beautiful little frozen crystals like quartz...

and as we walked back it was starting to melt...

which is the topic of the following post...

Frosty grass... melting...

25 October 2010

It was a beautiful cold frosty Autumn morning when I woke up today...

Last week my sister Pip said that I should join the Macro Monday...

and the melting beads of frozen dew seemed to be perfect for the first Macro Monday...

Although I haven't decided which photo to use for the link...  I have never tried doing a link before so this will be interesting to see if it will work for me or if I shall have to phone Pip for assistance.

I have always loved grass... soft and spongey to walk on... smells amazing when the lawn is cut... gives the countryside its beautiful green carpet... food for the cows and calves... amazing green spikes...

A walk in the Waterworks

24 October 2010

Neil took this wonderful panorama photograph of the upper reservoir at the Waterworks Park...  The Cavehill is in the distance behind the small tree covered island.  The park is home to many species of ducks, coote, waterhens, swans and geese (although most of the geese have now migrated)...

The bulrushes were at their magnificent best...

and edge the lake... very striking and imposing...

I stroked the bulrush and it felt like velvet...

The willow is losing its leaves which were floating on the lake below it... 

The sky and cloud looked amazing reflected on the water...

Such a beautiful and peaceful place to walk on a sunny morning...

One of the best views of the Cavehill that I know...

Once upon a time there was a hamlet...

22 October 2010

Often when I walk on the Cavehill I think about how different it must have been a hundred years ago...

There are ruins of two small hamlets on the hill that were homes to the people who worked in the old limestone quarry... there are photos of the old quarry in this Gregor Story .

Isn't it strange how quickly nature reclaims what was once a community...

The quarry closed and people moved away to find other jobs...

and the hamlet became part of a field on a hilltop farm for cattle to graze in...  then the farm became part of the Cavehill Country Park so that we could walk and enjoy the countryside...

the lane where people walked grassed over...

and the walls are now mossy mounds... 

it must have been a very different place when they lived on the Cavehill with the noise of the quarry just below them and the small railway track taking the limestone to the docks...

Barbed Wire and Webs...

21 October 2010

I just loved how the web looked attached to the barbed wire fence...

This is the same web as the one in the photo above but I thought it looked beautiful with the grass field in the background...

This extraordinary spider has attached its web to the wire fence, the fence post and a clump of water reeds...

The last of the Roses...

20 October 2010

I love my roses... I always feel sad when the last blooms are open... 

This one is an Austen Rose...  William Shakespeare.

as I know that there will be no more beautiful roses until next June...

Rosa Ballerina is amazing... one of the first to flower and also one of the last to flower... plus it blooms right through the summer... what more can anyone ask of a beautiful rose...

Another Austen Rose... can't think of its name off hand...

I think this Austen Rose is Pilgrim... it has a beautiful blossom that always seems to face downwards...

This is one of my favourite roses in the garden... it has an absolutely gorgeous scent...

Webs on Hawthorne Hedges...

19 October 2010

I am sure there are amazing people in the blogosphere who can look at a spider web and know what type of spider probably made it...

I am not one of these people...  I don't in the main, hang around to see if the owner of the web is at home...

I snap and run...

but I did notice that the majority of the webs in the Hawthorne hedges were very different in look to the ones in the Beech Hedgerow.   So I assume a different sort of spider makes them and they are aimed at catching a much smaller sized flying bug...

The amount of work that must go into the creation of something as amazing as this must be pretty impressive.

It amazes me how they use the materials around where they live to attach their silken webs to... I loved the contrast of the rough lichen covered bark to the silken airy web in this photo...

The hawthorne leaves made a beautiful backdrop for this web.