Lens-Artists Challenge #181 – Double Dipping

This week the Lens-Artist challenge suggests that in addition to their challenge, we link to some of the other creative opportunities our fellow bloggers make available. Cee does a wonderful job keeping us all up-to-date with the current challenges. So I have chosen two of her challenges to link to this week. First her CBWC challenge and this week’s topic is “birds”.

Blue tit on branch

While birds can bring lots of colour into our gardens we can also appreciate their beauty in black and white.

Blue tit from beneath

The second of Cee challenges is her flower of the day (FOTD) challenge. In Ireland, it is mid-winter and really we shouldn’t be finding any flowers around. But I photographed this meadow buttercup, the essence of a summer meadow flower, on the 1st January.

meadow buttercup

FOTD

Rose

rose

Harebells

Harebells, Campanula rotundifolia, are one of my favourite summer flowers. What is not to like – a beautiful blue colour and shaped like bells. I have cultivated forms of Campanula in my garden but nothing beats this native one. The native ones are found on dry grasslands and dunes. These ones were  growing on a dry sand/soil bank adjacent to some machair (a specialised, rare and sandy habitat formed from windblown calcareous sands) near Belmullet, Co Mayo.

Harebell

Joining Cee’s flower of the day.

Harebell

Allium – Flower of the day

We are experiencing exceptional high temperatures for the West of Ireland – we seem to be going from one extreme to another this year. Yesterday, we hit 27 degrees and today the forecasters say we may hit the 30s! In the garden, flowers are suffering – not being used to this heat and constant sunshine.

However, one flower is looking pretty groovy. I planted these alliums last winter and am really impressed by the geometric patterns. They really are like fireworks. And I will be seeing if I can get some more this autumn.

Allium

Also joining in Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Allium