I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

The Chaukhandi tombs are an early Islamic cemetery located in the Sindh province of Pakistan. The Chaukhandi tombs are remarkable for the exquisite stone carving. Historians recognised them as an Islamic necropolis because all the tombs are in the direction of the Holy Kaaba (an Islamic site for prayers).

#pakistan #chaukanditombs #karachi #shotoniphone #travelphotography #flickr #gettycontributor #smugmug #lonelyplanet #natgeotravel #pakistantravel #madewithlightroom #sgtraveller

We went for a drive today to Mt. Wilson in the Blue Mountains and we came across some of these red mushrooms. There were so many dotted around the side of the road - the first time I have ever seen them with my own eyes. We didn't see any fairies though.

I couldn't resist this photo today of my grandson and my doggy grandson. Shiloh is now around 6 months now and has lost his puppy looks and he is a real escape artist. We put him outside for a while and when I went out to take some photos, he had disappeared (we had forgotten that the side fence has been pulled down prior to a new one going up LOL). Luckily he hadn't gone too far.

This is my photo for the challenge 52 in 2014 - #33 Footwear. My littlest granddaughter is now three and for the last 12 months has been going crazy every time she sees something with Peppa Pig. These are her new shoes for the cooler months and of course they are Peppa Pig shoes that light up when she walks.

I was in the garden today with my daughter and granddaughter when we spotted this tiny bug crawling along a leaf. My granddaughter spotted a perfect green heart on it's back, something I have never seen before.

Thank you Annie fot the title.

This is the second image and consecutive second Explored!

Nothing better than this. :-)

For BETTER VIEW PRESS L

Located close to the Lakhota Fort is the Koath Bastion, which is famous for being the arsenal, built by the Royal family of Jamnagar. One of the most interesting areas of the complex is an old well, from which water can be drawn by blowing in to a small hole on the floor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamnagar

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

Whoops, I almost forgot to add a photo!! It is bedtime now so I will have to catch you all tomorrow. Even though it is the 9th here in Australia (12.30 am), this is my photo for the 8th May.

Before we went on our river cruise on Saturday, the owner of the property took us on a game drive. He took us up a steep (and rocky) mountain road to the top of the hill. At the top of the hill there was a flat outcrop which offered 360 degree views of the surrounding countryside.

We have been on some very rocky roads in four wheel drives and seen some very wild countryside during our 10 day stay - what an adventure.

Feathers Hotel is a hotel and historical inn opposite The Bull Hotel in Ludlow, southern Shropshire, England. Built in 1619 by a local lawyer named Rees Jones. It is a Tudor-style half-timbered building, and is noted for its Jacobean furnishings. It is a Grade I listed building, listed on 15 April 1954, and is one of approximately 500 listed buildings in Ludlow, but one of its best known.

The timber facaded hotel has motifs of ostrich feathers and hence the name "Feathers Hotel", which was designed initially as a private home by Rees Jones, an attorney. The feathers also represented the traditional insignia of the Prince of Wales who later became Charles I; it also highlighted the town's liking for the monarchy

The building was completed in 1619 by Rees Jones, practicing attorney from Pembrokeshire who had come to Ludlow to pursue his profession at the “Council of the Marches. It is thought that during the English Civil War Royalist soldiers would have lodged there. After the war, Thomas Jones, son of the builder converted it into an inn. It served as an inn for some 200 years and a cock-fighting venue and became the Feathers Hotel in 1863. The Cambrian Archaeological Association said in 1899, "this is much the most picturesque of all the half-timbered houses now remaining in Ludlow. In adapting it for use as a hotel, none of the old work has been tampered with. The New York Times reportedly named it the "most handsome inn in the world".

A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ~Ansel Adams

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

This is a Ribbon Bush that is growing wild in my garden - it seems to pop up all over the place (and yes, another bee LOL).

We took Peter's Dad out for lunch today and he is settling in to the nursing home well, in fact, I think he is more worried now that his house won't sell and he won't be able to stay there.

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

Yesterday, I took two of my granddaughters to Featherdale Animal Park, Blacktown, Sydney to see the animals. It was a very hot day (but not as hot as today) and there were so many visitors from other countries there to see our unique Australian animals.

Today was the hottest day on record in the city of Sydney at 46C and it reached around 48C here in Western Sydney. Peter took a thermometer into the back yard and it reached 50C in the sun within 20 minutes. A day for sitting inside in the airconditioning.

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

I have been going through my 2009 photos looking for a photo of my granddaughter's 8th birthday (couldn't find one - don't you hate it when that happens), but I came across this lovely grevillea and bee photo and decided to post it for today's photo.

This is my entry in the weekly challenge - 52 weeks of photos project - week 42, adventure.

Seven weeks from today we will be leaving on our next adventure - we have booked an 8 day tour of rural France taking in the landing beaches of Normandy and we then fly to the UK where we have booked some cottages and hired a car for 60 days. We will also be catching up with some of my Flickr friends once again and I cannot wait to see them again.

A beautiful sunset that I saw during a river cruise when we were staying near Ellisras.

I spotted this bird walking along a dirt track in Pilanesberg. I have looked in my small book of African birds and found that it looks like a Blacksmith Lapwing.

Yesterday we drove to Richmond to see if the black swans were there - I wasn't disappointed.

When we were driving around the Game parks such as Kruger and Pilanesberg, some of the animals were so close to the car that the 100-400 lens was not the best for photos. On this trip I was prepared as I also took another camera and my Canon 24-105 L series lens. This was actually taken with the 100-400, but at 100 mm.

Those Martians sought him everywhere.

And they didn't find little shroom because he had hidden himself under a leaf and I didn't know he was there until I saw it on screen.

Before I left Muff Forest and those sniggering squirrels, I thought I would do a quick reccie with the binoculars to see if I could spot any lurking in the tree tops.

I didn't of course see any so I turned my attention downwards because it was extremely lush underfoot.

If it hadn't started to teem down I would have been quite happy to poke around the forest floor, after all thats ONE thing that cannot run away from me!

Still practising with my new toy. This is one flower that it still growing after all the hot weather.

We had a family day at my daughter's house for Easter last week and when we arrived we were greeted by my daughter with flouro-yellow hair. We nicknamed her the human highlighter LOL. She used to have long hair, but she shaved her head for "Shave for a cure" a couple of years ago. She enjoyed the freedom of super short hair and has kept her hair short since then and often surprises us with different colours.

I just realised that I haven't posted any photos of some of the many elephants that we saw during our African adventure. From memory these were taken in Kruger.

This is a beautiful Iris that was growing in our friend's garden. I have never seen this colour before, although I do know that there are so many different colours available now.

I am in the process of putting up the Christmas tree as we have visitors tomorrow. It has been so hot and humid that I am not really motivated, even though I normally love getting the tree and decorations ready.

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

I was feeling weary list night after our hectic couple days so I didn't spend time on Flickr - I will catch up with you all this evening.

Happy Easter to all my Flickr friends

I have been locked out of my Flickr account for two days due to signing in from another country (even though I had been logging in gor two weeks LOL). I had so much trouble getting Yahoo to put me back in, but I am now back, thank goodness, I have been having nightmares over it all.

Here are a few photos of Little Moreton Hall. I posted them when I was away SOOC, but have since added a cooling filter as the original photos seemed to have an orange tinge for some reason.

Little Moreton Hall is a moated 15th and 16th-century half-timbered manor house 4 miles (6.4 km) southwest of Congleton, Cheshire. It is one of the finest examples of timber-framed domestic architecture in England. The house is today owned by the National Trust. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building, and is protected as a Scheduled Monument. So picturesque is the house that it has been described as "a ginger bread house lifted straight from a fairy story". The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner Sir Richard de Moreton around 1450; the remainder was constructed in various campaigns by three successive generations of the family until around 1580. The house remained in the ownership of the Moreton family for almost five centuries.

The building is highly irregular, with asymmetrical façades that ramble around three sides of a small cobbled courtyard, with "bays and porches jostling each other for space".

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

My brother is down for the holidays, so my time will be limited (as I expect everyone will be over the holidays). I will be popping in though.

The Battle of Isandlwana (alternative spelling: Isandhlwana) on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo–Zulu War between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zululand in South Africa, a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of about 1,800 British, colonial and native troops and perhaps 400 civilians. The Zulus were equipped mainly with the traditional assegai iron spears and cow-hide shields, but also had a number of muskets and old rifles though they were not formally trained in their use. The British and colonial troops were armed with the state-of-the-art Martini-Henry breech-loading rifle and two 7-pounder (3-inch, 76 mm) mountain guns deployed as field guns as well as a rocket battery. Despite a vast disadvantage in weapons technology, the numerically superior Zulus ultimately overwhelmed the poorly led and badly deployed British, killing over 1,300 troops, including all those out on the forward firing line. The Zulu army suffered around a thousand killed.

The battle was a decisive victory for the Zulus and caused the defeat of the first British invasion of Zululand. The British Army had suffered its worst defeat against a technologically inferior indigenous force. Isandlwana resulted in the British taking a much more aggressive approach in the Anglo–Zulu War, leading to a heavily reinforced second invasion and the destruction of King Cetshwayo's hopes of a negotiated peace.

The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was a battle in the Anglo-Zulu War. The defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenant John Chard of the Royal Engineers, and Lieutenant Gonville Bromhead immediately followed the British Army's defeat at the Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879, and continued into the following day, 23 January.

Just over 150 British and colonial troops successfully defended the garrison against an intense assault by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. The massive, but piecemeal, Zulu attacks on Rorke's Drift came very close to defeating the tiny garrison but were ultimately repelled. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded to the defenders, along with a number of other decorations and honours.

Peter has a love of history and we visited these places during our trip and stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking the battlefield of Isandlwana.

This is something out of left field for me as I usually avoid taking people shots because I like to be up close and personal with most of my subjects.

Shane and I were checking out the Galgorm Resort and Spa last October, arriving just as a Wedding Party were getting set to have their photos taken.

I love Weddings and in fact when I lived in Australia in the very early years, I worked for a Wedding Photographer putting together all the albums.

I was very respectful and didn't take any photos until they were almost finished and the light was so fantastic I couldn't resist grabbing one shot.

I actually really like this shot as it has an informal feel about it, much different from what I was seeing how the official photographer was taking his shots.

I emailed it to the hotel and asked them if they would contact the bride to see if she would like the photo.

She eventually emailed me and said yes, especially as it was her Uncle that was taking the photo of the two of them.

Am I being a bit old fashioned by expecting a thank you as I never heard from her again and I had to do a lot of work on it, photoshopping out all the do not park signs!!

As this was a year ago they might be divorced by now!!!

I have decided to join Nina on her challenge to add a flower photo a day for 365 days.

www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/

Another from my archives. I love this colour Gaillardia but they haven't come up in my neighbour's garden for a couple of years - I must try and find one for my garden.

Yesterday I went to Parramatta Park with my daughter and grandchildren. I knew there was a bat colony there, but never seen it before - there must have been hundreds hanging in the trees. They are very difficult to photograph in flight as by the time they launch themselves, fly around in a circle and come back to land, it is difficult to follow them and focus. I took my 100-400 mm lens with me and it has fairly slow AF, but I did manage to salvage a few photos.

I had to drop my Tamron 150-600 mm lens into the city yesterday as it has stopped working - the message says the camera is not reading the lens, clean the terminals. I tried cleaning the terminals several times to no avail, so back to Tamron it goes. I have only taken it out three times and it worked fine then, but when I put in on the camera last week the message keeps coming up. I am so disappointed as I have only ever bought non Canon lenses twice and both times have had problems.

On the good side, as we were in the city, I mentioned to Peter that we should go to the zoo and to my surprise he agreed. He even paid - an early birthday present for my birthday on Friday. It was such a hot day to be wandering around the zoo and the animals were more inclined to stay in the shade sleeping, but I did manage to get a few photos of this tiger who was cooling off in a pool. Lucky he was behind glass or I may have been lunch.

I took the 7D MK II and the Tamron 150-600 mm lens out yesterday when we went to visit Peter's Dad. I spotted this Pelican on the water with a fish tail hanging out of it's beak. When it came out of the water, I could see that it was a big fish which it seemed to have trouble swallowing. It went back into the water and kept sweeping it's beak under the water until it finally managed to get it down.

As you can see from this photo, taking photos of some animals in Kruger can be difficult. When you come around a bend and see many cars parked "everywhere" on the road you know that something exciting has been spotted. The rules of the park are that the cars should park on the side of the sighting and leave the other side free for those that want to pass. You can see that the rules are never followed, much to the annoyance of my driver (Peter) LOL.

Every hour on the hour, the unassuming facade of a villa across from the imposing Chateau de Blois transforms into an enormous mechanical clock.

Against a backdrop of clanging bells and eerie music and vocalizations, six golden dragon heads emerge out of windows, snapping their jaws, two giant clawed hands crush balcony railings, and a serpentine tail twirls from the attic window.

The installation was created in 1998 by French artists Michell and Jean-Pierre Hartmann, and is an homage to the legendary magician and illusionist Jean Robert-Houdin. A statue of Blois' famous clockmaker-cum-master magician stands in the square in front of the building which houses a museum of magic, the Maison de la Magie. Inside the building Robert-Houdin's creations are on display, both original contraptions and recreations, along with other tributes to illusionist magic.

Robert-Houdin was born in Blois, and had his own collection on display, but it is unclear if this is the same building, or one nearby. The early filmmaker George Melies also used this building as a theatre space for some of his early presentations.

The facade of the building is pretty, but otherwise unremarkable until the spectacle begins, which is extraordinary. There are six mechanical dragon heads, 21' long each, along with two 4 1/2' paws, topped by the 18' tail. They are constructed of modern materials, carbon fiber and resin epoxy, but the design looks to be inspired by the old chateau's decorative motifs of similar golden salamanders, which were a symbol of the king. The artists have also created other large mechanical installations elsewhere.

The spectacle occurs every hour on the hour for about five minutes, after which, the heads, hands, and feet slowly retract back into the building, and the facade rebuilds itself.

I have decided to join Nina (www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/) on her challenge of taking a flower photo a day for 365 days.

I am not sure what I will do when I am out of action after the surgery - I will just have to add some from the archives until I can pick up the camera again.

I had a request for a blue bear from my granddaughter and I made it out one of the fabrics that came in the post.

A beautiful cheetah we saw during a visit to Longleat House.

A funny story - Peter put his window down so I could get a clear photo through the driver side. He put up the window and we travelled through the tiger enclosure (a tiger walked alongside the car and around the back). We then drove into the lion enclosure and I was taking photos of the lions when a lady in a safari car came alongside our car and when Peter enquired what was up she said - "would you mind putting up your back window". Peter must have put it down earlier and not realised. Lucky the tigers and the lions weren't hungry.

Here are some more bears that I have made for my grandchildren. I really enjoy making these little bears, but they play havoc with my sore hands, so I have had to put my mohair away for the time being. Apart from the pain, the most difficult thing to bear (excuse the pun LOL) is not being able to do something whilst I am watching TV. I hate sitting around and doing nothing.

One of the included attractions on our tour of rural France was a visit to Monet's garden in Giverny, France. It is a beautiful place to wander around, although the day we were there it was raining. There were a few breaks in the weather and I was able to take a few photos.

This is my latest creation - isn't she adorable???? She stands around 10 inches tall and is made from giraffe patterned mohair.

These are some more photos of the leopard that we saw in Kruger. He was staring intently at some impala in the bushes and slowly started to stalk them.