365:106 Shiny

365:106 Shiny, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"Shiny happy beetles on the leaves..."

We see a lot of these large beasts about - I think they're the adult versions of the giant grubs we found in the garden soil when we first started working on the garden in spring ...

More garden niceness; Delphinium Guinevere

365:105 Arm

365:105 Arm, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Oh yes ... how many of these cheesy shots of the Bristol Harbourside crane have you seen on Flickr? I just had to get into the act too ...

I went for a stroll round the area and also spotted these lovelies in the garden of the Ecohome at the Create Center:

365:104 Grass

365:104 Grass, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

I like it!

We went for a walk along Velvet Bottom Nature Reserve in the Mendip Hills today ... I can't even BEGIN to describe how beautiful and serene this place is (no wonder its an "AONB" ie "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty"). We were too busy being extremely relaxed to take any photos ...

Although Sunshine managed some surreptitious rock balancing ;)

365:103 Fridge

365:103 Fridge, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"Resistance to chocolate cake is futile!!!!! Muahahahahaaaaa!!!"

Can you tell we have a new fridge and like playing with the flash? Can'ya can'ya????

365:102 Rain

365:102 Rain, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

On the garden social climbers.

365:101 Jeanine

365:101 Jeanine, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

The "superfishynice" Jea9 paid us a flying visit last night on the way to performing at Glasto. Its great to have house-guests, especially when they bring their own tea :)

365:100 Mini Studio

365:100 Mini Studio, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Picture 100!

So, OK, its not a great photograph, but it does show how far I've got in understanding the workings of the camera...

You see here (taken on the Ixus on timer) my little mini studio we've set up to take photos of teeny tiny pieces of children's jewellery for a friend. She needs them for a catalogue (which I'm also doing the layout for).

Tiny pieces of silver require a macro lens, a remote trigger (in my hand) to reduce camera shake, a flash (on the tripod) to light the things clearly; with a diffuser (here the back end of a washing up liquid bottle!) to soften the shadows. And of course lots of white card/paper to block out background and reflect all the light ...

Phew ... hard work ...

ps see the photo in flickr as it has a lot of notes!

365:099 Foot

365:099 Foot, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Today I have been mostly painting my foot ...

One of my aims for this summer is to learn how to do skin tones - and this is my first attempt. Guache on Moleskine; done sitting in the summer sun in the garden; sipping my ginger tea .... Aaaahhhh ...this is what life should be like ..

365:098 Social Climbers

365:098 Social Climbers, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"The only way is up!"

Its fascinating watching these things grow, and get their twisty feelers out and grab hold of anything in their path (even each other) on their way ever onwards and upwards ...

More garden photography:

365:097 Golden

365:097 Golden, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Don't even ask what this is about ... but isn't he just adorable??!!??

365:096 Bunting

365:096 Bunting, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Have been painting buntings today ... lots and lots of bunting (a LOT more than you see here) ...

365:095 Rose

365:095 Rose, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

With summer well and truly started, there's less colour and more greenery about - so I thought I'd do the few flowers left before it ALL goes lush.

This one's on one of the rose bushes at the front of the house, under the evening sun.

Sunshine, this one's for you :)

365:094 Dessert

365:094 Dessert, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Strawberries and Greek yogurt with honey ....

Om nom nom nom ... :d

365:093 Alex

365:093 Alex, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"Happiness is a chest called Alex..."

An expensive bit of happiness, but I now finally have somewhere to put away my art work ... WHOOPEE!!

365:092 Fruit

365:092 Fruit, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Remember our alpine strawberry plant? Its FRUITING!!!

365:091 Roots

365:091 Roots, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Sunshine and I had a session in the back garden today. Clearing our weeds and replanting things into bigger pots.

One of our bigger pots had this lump of grass in it that we wanted to get rid of. Pulled out the dead leaves, and some of the green ones; and then both of us tried to pull the mass out - and it wouldn't! Lots of digging and forking later _this_ came out ... I don't I've ever seen a "grassroot ball"!

365:090 Tower

365:090 Tower, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Hanging round the Bristol Design Festival today, which is being held in the Old Fire Station. This wondrous tower is what they used to train the firefighters on ... eeeeppp! VERTIGO!

Currently an apartment towerblock for pigeons.

365:089 Gears

365:089 Gears, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

There's a lovely old dockside crane by the river near the Redcliffe caves. I walk past it a lot and have always wanted to take a photo. Not the best shot in the world - you'll notice I've had to resort to sunshine's old Canon Ixus V (2.1 Mega Pixels!!!) since the S3IS died ...

365:088 Gardening

365:088 Gardening, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Sunshine and I have been so busy the last couple of weeks that it feels like we've been neglecting the garden ...

Hopefully things have eased off a bit now and we can get back into it ...

365:087 Map

365:087 Map, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

We have a big map of Bristol on our wall that I periodically stick handmade flag/pins into. Being the anal person that I am, they are all colour coded. Red is important stuff; orange, friends; blue, art shops/galleries; and green, places to visit.

On another note, we've decided that the Canon is beyond repair :(
We have the Nikon (and it being a DSLR it takes much better photos) but it's a bit too big for me to carry around all the time ... and I'm missing that facility already...

I'm going away without Sunshine in August and he's keeping the camera - am going to need to find something for myself to keep the 365 going ...

365:086 Loo

365:086 Loo, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

This picture really doesn't need a caption ... ;)

365:085 Paint

365:085 Paint, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"Messy Mithi"

I have NO idea how I managed to get so much paint on me ... spent the day helping the 3rd years putting up their degree show and there was a lot of wall/plinth/portfolio-stand painting to be done.

365:084 Across

365:084 Across, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Went for a walk this afternoon and found ourselves near the observatory with beautiful views across Bristol and the suspension bridge.

365:083 Jump

365:083 Jump, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

"Lift off!?!"

We went wandering round Millenium Square this afternoon and there were lots of kids playing in the fountains - Sunshine couldn't help himself and had to join in :)

SPLASH!

Round the corner I spotted this lady at the "Bristol Festival of Nature":

365:082 Fix

365:082 Fix, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

Sunshine stripped down the Canon tonight (being the engineer that he is). Didn't manage to fix it, but has a fair idea of what the problem might be ... and we're looking into buying a broken one from Ebay to salvage some spare parts ...

Its nice to have an engineer-boy handy ;)

365:081 Sad

365:081 Sad, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

This is me being sad, and taking a 365 photo on my camera phone ... why? Because my Canon died yesterday ...

Its been a bit ill, but its really truly scuppered now - the lens mechanism in stuck and can't come out, or retract in, and keeps giving me "lens error" messages :(

And what a crap time to die - I spent a good deal of time yesterday walking round all my old London familiar places - my college, the place I lived for for 5 years, the labs and the routes I walked ... So many photo opportunities, and no camera; and no Sunshine to try and fix it, and no Nikon to hand to take over ...

So you get crappy old camera phone instead.

365:080 Show

365:080 Show, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

In amongst my itinerary for my London trip was to visit the Royal College of Art graduate summer show ... Sometimes the work can be a bit too conceptual for me, but there was some really engaging stuff too ...

But my favourite bit has to be the giant sign outside. Doggie in the foreground gives you a sense of scale. The entrance is through the bottom of 'H'.

365:079 Tea Flower

365:079 Tea Flower, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

I'm in London for a few days and tonight went out with my very good friend Ellie. She took me to this dim sum place in Hampsted called "Ping Pong"...

The food was absolutely scrummy and we stuffed ourselves. To end the meal Ellie suggested I try one of their 'flower green teas'. She tried to describe it but I wasn't too sure... still, I'm a green tea lover, so I ordered one.

This Huge glass arrived with what looked like a bundle of dry leaves at the bottom. The waitress then proceeded to pour hot water into the glass and then walk away. So there I sat watching with intent as my tea FLOWERED! Yup! It unbundled, and then this lily (I think) came out ... AMAZING!

365:078 Hidden

365:078 Hidden, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

This little'un and his family nested in our neighbour's rooftop earlier this spring. Since then the family have exploded in numbers and in tweeting volume!

Sunshine and I have been desperately trying to take pictures of them but they're quite flighty and disappear whenever we come near - sometimes I wish we had a telephoto lens :(

The neighbours have a short bushy tree in their front garden that the family often play in - usually they're hidden in the branches, but today I managed to sneak a peek :)

Someone tell me what species of bird this is?

365:077 Behind

365:077 Behind, originally uploaded by planetmithi.

What wonderful patterns exist behind machine embroidery ...