Monday, August 17, 2015

Pictures of things I find I have cropped into squares


Looking through the photos uploaded to the most recent web album, finding it difficult to find any common criterion by which to group them so as to make a coherent post, so I just picked out the square ones. I seem to have abandoned monthly collages but this is in the same line. Captions below, for a change.



Flower, always forget what these are called.




Echinaceas, one with bee, one with butterfly. The small tricolour bumble bees are probably the most frequent kind we get, I sometimes perceive they are nesting in areas of rough grass, generally in small colonies, I go easy with the mower but they seem quite docile. However, one rather ungratefully stung Tom on the hand the other day when, without thinking, he went to rescue it from drowning in a bucket of water. I gave him antihistamine tablets and he more or less slept for three days.


Dead head.
 

Courgette plant. These are very spiny. We get rather tired of courgettes quite quickly, even with just one plant, and they start looming into marrows.


I left a few leek heads; I've heard you can perennialise them. Ugly bug type of insects seem to favour them.


A jar of honey.


A bowl of mushrooms. They became curry, with cashew nuts, an unusual but good combination, more south east Asian than typically Indian.


Squinting. An octopus hat, rather large. Neck skin crêping. Latvian braid. Face must be the wrong way round, but that's mostly how I see it.

10 comments:

Avus said...

I have ceased to mow the lawn for over 3 months now, Lucy- it started as sheer laziness, but then the thyme (purple) and vetches and buttercups (yellow) began to proliferate and attract the bees and butterflies - so it has been left "au naturel" for the time being. Guess I shall have to mow it sometime soon though now the autumn is upon us.

Francesca said...

The honey is so beautiful!

Catalyst said...

Yes, the honey is beautiful. And that bloom in your first picture? It's a . . . flower.

You're welcome.

Tom said...

Sorry to break our rule about non-commenting on each other's blogs, but....... The business of neck skin creping is more apparent than real, it being a quirk of taking a selfie. I have never noticed the phenomenon you mention, and I look at you...lots!

Ellena said...

All so beautiful but I wonder if Tom's 3-day sleep was sting related or an overdose of 'I care about you' tablets.

Marly Youmans said...

Lovely squares but I find myself craving an octopus hat! Motivation to learn to knit? I am the original daydreamer, stitch-splitter...

Zhoen said...

Octopus hat is wonderful, you too.

My leeks came back this year, we'll see if they do next spring. Gathered some seeds as well.

Lucy said...

Thank you.

Avus - you are clearly a man after my own heart when it comes to grass cutting. You do seem to have rather more interesting and pleasant weeds than we do though. I'm all for biodiversity, but if I neglect too much things like nettles and docks and unnameable smelly things, some kind of DYC (the botanical equivalent of LBJs) also take over.

Francesca - yes, there's a moment around breakfast time when a certain slant of sunlight hits that part of the kitchen; the other morning it was making the mauve plastic net round the garlic bulbs look quite transcendent!

Cat - yup, who'd'a thought it!

Tom - thank you, my dear, you are sweet and gallant, of course. From where you are you probably don't get to look up at my neck much, but anyway, compliment happily received.

Ellena - something like that! They reckon an anti-histamine taken by mouth is probably more effective than a topical cream, but it can have this effect. However, while he was sleeping he couldn't scratch the sting, so it did some good that way anyway.

Marly - it was for the partner of the chap I knitted octopus socks for a month or so back, he was envious and asked for a hat. It's rather large but nice and warm and soft. I like knitting hats, they are quick and only come in ones, unlike socks, gloves etc. Quite a good beginners' project, a 16" circular needle is a boon...

Zhoen - thanks, not an unflattering selfie really, as they go. I was pleased with the hat, though it was rather large. I ordered just the red and cream wool to begin with, but it was unsubtle, the addition of that soft milky coffee brown made for really good colour combination. I'm somewhat hooked on those braided trims round the bottom and crown, and tend to apply them wherever possible.

Lyse said...

Il est super ton bonnet, mais comme tu as l'air triste ! Tu fais la moue !

Lucy said...

Bonjour Lyse! C'est vrai que j'ai l'air triste, mais je ne suis pas triste! C'est difficile quand on prend son propre photo...