At last a bit of sunshine so spent a few hours at The National Botanic Gardens of Wales including a visit to The British Birds of Prey Centre situated there. The sun being so low in the sky proved to be problematical but still, it was good to see sunshine and get out in the fresh air.

A welcome addition to the wildflower patch in my garden.

There's something quite subliminal about sitting with a cuppa and watch the daylight followed by sunrise over the Swansea Valley

This is a Norwegian Spruce tree that I keep in a pot in the back garden which gets relocated to the front porch every Christmas. The caption refers to the fact that I was due to be elsewhere today but was forced to cancel first thing this morning due to the band of heavy rain that is sweeping across my part of the UK.

A misty morning - looking out over the Menai Straits.

Wishing all my Flickr friends, a happy and healthy new year and as one of my friends always says , "Never lose your sparkle" 😉

This is the skeletonised seed head from a mallow flower that was growing in the wildflower patch in my garden - held up into the light then tweaked in Lightroom to get the dark background.

The underside of a Gerbera that is growing in our greenhouse.

For the Macro Mondays theme of 'Childhood Toys" HMM!

Captured on Cefn Bryn, Gower today on the way home from revisiting the Sunflower Fields at Rhossili.

Very much a grab shot after coming home from a top -up session with my Chiropractor. I always feel whacked after it even though it's far gentler a regime than many....

cityandcountyclinic.co.uk/

As it says on the tin..

Today we did what we were forced to cancel last Friday due to bad weather. We'd been invited by the Birds of Prey Centre situated at The National Botanic Gardens of Wales to meet up with Drew Davies Photography ( www.flickr.com/photos/drewdaviesphotography/) for some hints and tips about bird photography. Who could resist capturing these on our way out even though the light was failing ?

Taken in between heavy showers in my garden this morning

We have been trying to capture different possible looks of the glossy ibis in shade and light to show off its beauty. Then, the ibis in breeding plumage, in the Viera Florida wetlands, gave us this image. We realized that the possibilities were unlimited.

Believe the bird showed us this image to get rid of us after a couple of photoshoots. 😀

Colours, I mean - I just wish it wouldn't give us so much rain though :) This is yet another shot of part of my drooping cherry tree in our back garden , captured this morning in bright sunlight after so much rain of late

A full day today at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales because I arrived there early in order to catch the morning mist. As I was composing a shot of that, this flew up and landed on the fence to my right therefore, an opportunist shot taken into the sun.

Part of an arrangement captured in my friend's guesthouse this morning.

For the Macro Mondays theme of 'Timepieces ‘ - a cheap 'costume jewellery' watch that I bought several years ago to go with a wedding outfit . It's still in working order but never worn because it's it's too tiny for me to read the time on it 😎 The face itself measures 2cm. HMM!

Captured in my back garden this morning . One of very many bees that were buzzing in and out of the blossom.

Wise words in that old phrase as a rule but there are often exceptions to rules - this being no different. 'Clout' refers to winter clothing and it was cold and dark when I captured this earlier on that, I was back to my winter woollies again.

Last shot out of my camera today after an afternoon spent partly at Kenfig Nature Reserve before we headed off to see if the Cattle Egrets were still in the farmland in Nottage, followed by a drive to Porthcawl Harbour. This was taken further up the road from the harbour near Rest Bay where we'd parked the car. I'd composed in my head on the drive home a blog entry to go with this but no sooner as we'd got home, a neighbour called in to ask Huw my better half if he'd conduct the funeral of her husband who passed away a few days ago. Any thoughts of blogging after that just flew out of the window.

RIP lovely neighbour. ❤

Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis milberti)

Hi Everybody!

This image is for Wannabe Warmer Wednesday. I'm late to post, but Wednesday isn't over yet!

A very fast butterfly, the Milbert's Tortoiseshell posed briefly for me. I was located in a ditch that was loaded with wild asters. It is always a good challenge to not step on the wildflowers when shooting butterflies, one of my most favourite things to do! I can hardly wait for summer to see these guys again!

Thank you so much for stopping by. I sure appreciate your comments. Have a great day!

©Copyright - Nancy Clark - All Rights Reserved

Too busy with laptop work to get out today and noticed each time I glanced up to give my eyes a break from the screen that the colours in our drooping cherry tree in the garden had changed since the last time I captured them

A new addition to my back garden, captured this morning before the rain set in.

This is a dwarf sunflower head ( Helianthus Sunbelievable) which can be grown in patio pots. This one however is destined for one of the garden borders once the winds die down.

Woke up to a glorious crisp Autumn morning so headed out to the Lliw Reservoirs approx 15mins or less from home. Sadly the fine weather didn't last and by the time we arrived home it was raining once more.

I must have looked a proper sight lunchtime with an umbrella in one hand and a camera in the other. A Geum flowerhead in my garden.

Another day when the time ran away from me (compiling a Macro Mondays Blurb photobook).

I had a look at the FCB's 52 week challenge, and Smoke Art was top of the list.

My den now smells like a hippy's teepee, but I had great fun!

Basic edits only in LR, then three images overlaid in Photoshop with the Screen blending mode, on a widened canvas.

A marmite shot using some marbles I bought at Aerospace Bristol, the other day. Bring on the gags .. 😉....

Having to resort to another shot from my garden for today's 365

Taken on a lunchtime stroll around the fishpond at Gnoll Park, Neath

I was out the garden this morning checking for Autumn colours seeing as today is the first day of Autumn. Next thing I knew is that as the sun broke out , this beauty landed on the Rudbeckia. Since then it's been raining so heavily that any plans of going out with my camera have been scuppered- I so needed to get out to stretch my legs too after the weekend 😐

The other day I posted the photo in comments of the squirrel we hadn't seen in months since we last dog-sat for our son. Prior to that Huw had put a squirrel feeder on a back fence to prevent it from jumping into the bird feeders. To my delight, I saw it eating out of it today. Result! 😀

Looking deep into a 3" Iris flower.

A trip into Worthing with Liz, and a stop for tea in the Cowshed on the seafront. The patterns in the glasses caught my eye...

It wasn't intended to be 'deconstructed' but the petals started to fall off as I placed it on a black plate.

I keep seeing this as we drive off in the car and assumed it was in a neighbour's garden. On closer inspection though it's the other side of the fence in the corner of a patch of greenery maintained by Swansea City Council.

Seen on the railings when we arrived at our rural retreat last Monday and taken from inside the car .

Buds on the drooping cherry tree that we have in our front garden taken this morning. An unexpected afternoon off for my OH too so we took off to WWT Llanelli to attempt to get the five spoonbills that have been there for quite a while now but I'll hang fire on those with regards my PoTD because they were so far out ( as was the tide) that I'm not too sure how good they look.

Not the usual type of photo for me but I was sat at my desk with my morning cup of tea and noticed the sunlight hitting this glass paperweight on the sideboard across the room from me, bought in Kew Gardens but Made in Wales...

shop.kew.org/hafod-grange-paperweight

Alternative shot in comments...

A robin tucking into some food I'd sprinkled on a stone bench in my garden,

Taken this morning through the car sunroof as we packed up the car to come home from our rural retreat. The plan was to stay over until Monday ( with Huw himself leaving early tomorrow for an MS Cymru Meeting and returning to join me ) However after a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms, and with severe warnings in place with storm force winds tomorrow, a decision was made to come home. Despite the blue skies in this we drove home through heavy rain.

I think this idiom describes my life to a tee at the mo. ..

We were on the road to Carmarthen just gone 7am because our son was expecting a Sky technician to install his TV set in his new home after he'd left for work . No sooner had the technician left than we headed back to Swansea because my better half was receiving a cheque , money raised for MS Society Cymru . My own remit was to photo the cheque presentation. After I'd done all that I captured this pile of white tea plates and gave them a spin in Photoshop.

It's very difficult to get everything done at home today because of the numerous birds that have fledged in my garden in recent days. I could quite easily sit in the garden all day watching and snapping them but need to get ready to drive to Cardiff later on. I've chosen this for my PotD because it amused me to see a baby sparrow perched on top of a rusty miniature heron statue that's near my garden pond.

A Christmas tree that we bought for our front porch last year and placed in a pot outside. It's growing so rapidly that it's already too large to use this year so possibly we'll replant it in a field behind our home where many of our neighbours put theirs.