Farewell to 2018

2018 has been a difficult year for me starting off with having to place my 95 year old mother and 98 year old father in a care home, selling the family home and culminating in the loss of my mother a couple of months ago.

You will already have noticed that I have not posted much this year.  I have therefore decided to take a break from writing this blog to concentrate on improving my photography and Photoshop skills and following some online courses. Of course I hope to do some travelling too.

I will maintain my photography blog although my posts there tend to be sporadic too.

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2019.

Sally D’s mobile photography challenge: black and white

This extraordinary sculpture is in the grounds of Hauser & Wirth’s gallery in Somerset, UK.

Taken with an iphone 6+ and edited in Filterstorm Neu and DistressedFX.

The foliage is made from saucepans and kitchen implements. Not only do they have an art gallery – with a truly awful exhibition the day we went there, but an excellent restaurant and a perennial meadow garden, designed by the renowned landscape artist Piet Oudolf

You will find other inspirational black and white photos on Sally’s blog.

Daily Post photo challenge: details

looks like there will be a good hazel nut harvest this year

bee on a teasel

thistledown

Queen Anne’s lace

Details

travel theme: hands

you might almost call this “digital graffiti” – seen in India

sculpture in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg

a bird in the hand ….

Fortune teller’s sign, Yangon, Myanmar

a girl embroidering a picture from a black and white photo, Halong Bay, Vietnam

view more hands via Ailsa’s links

Daily Post: alphabet

Letters of the alphabet are all around us – in signs and street art

travel theme: entertainment

A few “entertainment” photos from my archives

graffiti/wall art in India

a group of sculptures in Luxembourg’s Place du Théâtre

colourful characters in Beaufort dispensing good will and alcohol

a series of photos from Luxembourg’s annual street art/animation festival

Tutti Frutti

Gromit

Every couple of years Bristol organises a festival to raise money for the Children’s hospital. Much like the elephant or gorilla parades seen elsewhere in the world Bristol makes use of well known-characters. Blanks are sold to local businesses to be decorated and they are then placed in different locations around the city. A map is provided so that you can visit them all and the figures are of source of entertainment to the children (and adults). In 2013 the theme was Gromit, who features in the cartoons, created in Bristol, called Wallace and Gromit. In 2015 it was the turn of Shaun the lamb (note the play on the words for ‘shorn’).

daily post photo challenge: circle

Circles

Thailand

circular window in a friend’s house



The Tuch Fabrik industrial museum, Luxembourg

Travel theme: naughty or nice

Naughty or nice, that is Ailsa’s question …. and challenge this week

I think this shot, taken in Arlon’s flea market, definitely qualifies for naughty.

What do you think of this one?

Which did you choose?

Sunday Stills: from this to that

The beauty of the changing of the seasons in Luxembourg. ‘From this to that’, as suggested by Ed

Texture Tuesday 31 March 2015

In Luxembourg there are few signs that Spring is here. It’s still bitterly cold and showers – more like April showers – continue to pour rain and sleet over the sodden landscape. However, the pollen-laden heads of pussy willow buds brighten the landscape, little beacons of light in the gloom.

This photo has been blended with Kim’s Mondays and I’ve reduced the opacity on the texture layer.