Kicking!

And alive too. Sorry for being a bad blogger. I blame it on the broken wrist which made typing difficult. And also nothing blogworthy happened. Anyway… that’s my excuse. I’m no longer plastered (haha) now, but the hand and wrist aren’t working properly yet, so I have to visit a physiotherapist regularly. Sigh.

To make it up to you, I’ll post some photos (I can finally hold the camera again) that I took with the macro lens. As soon as I can find the time to read up on you all, I will. And I do hope all of you, my dear blogfriends, are fine. I’ve missed you all, but it’s my own fault. I know.

The creatures below visit my garden. They are a hoverfly, damselfly and very small grasshopper.

Sunday Selections #70: The incredibly creepy edition

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and is thé place to post those photos that have been hanging around on your computer for far too long and need to be seen by other bloggers. Or something like that. Hop over to Kim’s rocking frog ponds and join in if you like.

I’m not always really following the rules to the letter, but Kim doesn’t mind. To make it up to her I’ll post some photos of Lovebirds or Ladybirds or whatever you call them in your country. We call them Lieveheersbeestjes. They are not incredibly creepy of course. BUT… I just thought I’d warn you. There’s also a photo of a spider. Just so you know. I’ll start with the cute ones:

This is a 14-dotted one. Not to be confused of course with the 14-spotted one, which is a much rarer kind of ‘lieveheersbeestje’. I’m not kidding.

Back end. The entire creature, not only its back end, is tinier than the ‘normal’ red/black ones. About two millimetres head-to-tail at the most.

 

Don’t worry, he made it.

 

And he’s saying ‘Hi Kim!’. Or ‘look mama, no hands!’.

 

I’m glad I’m not the mother of this daredevil.

And now a really scary, but also rather beautiful photo, if I may say so myself, of a spider. So don’t look if you’re suffering from even a mild case of arachnophobia. Do not be curious. Just look away. 

 

 

 

Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

 

 

It caught a fly, beheaded the poor victim and is probably saving that best part for last. When I checked this photo on my computer and saw that eye looking back at me it did send shivers down my spine. And I’m not even scared of spiders.

Anyway… wishing you all a nice week and I promise that when something blogworthy happens, I’ll tell you all about it. Life has been incredibly boring, but also quite relaxed. As far as working my ass off in the garden can be considered to be ‘relaxed’.

Sunday Selections #69: The bench edition

Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock, is the place to post those photos that have been hanging around on your computer for far too long and that need to be seen and enjoyed by fellow bloggers.

So, here’s my selection for this Sunday: I’m trying to make a series of photos of people who use the bench opposite our house to give their bums a much needed rest from cycling through the countryside. I’ve managed to take four shots on a sunny Sunday in April and it is far more interesting to look at them than I first thought it would be. I mean… they are just people sitting on a bench. How interesting can it be? And yet… they speak to me:

He’s soooo relaxed, but she wants to know and see everything that’s going on.

 

 

They are prepared for everything! And she leads.

 

 

Now, you have to understand that I don’t want them to see me taking their photo, so I sneak out of the garden gate, take a shot and quickly disappear again. But this woman, she just didn’t park her posterior on that bench. She just stood there, looking at our house. And there I was, hiding behind the ivy that surrounds our garden gate, waiting until she finally would turn around and just sit! After ages, I just gave up and went inside. Of course at that point she turned around an sat down. So I quickly took this shot through the window next to our front door. Which is why it is a rather poor quality shot.

He clearly needed this rest, his posture says ‘phew’. She can’t wait to stand up again. And look at his glasses. What’s with those?

 

Now, they are cute. Notice the non-existing space between them and compare that to the other photos. Sweet. And they clearly love blue. Aww…

 

And just for fun I though I’d add some macro shots. Have I mentioned I love my macro lens (I know I have. Lots of times. But hey… I do.)

Sunday Selections #63: the bee’s knees edition

It’s Sunday again. Time for the Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock. They do, you know.
Anyway, if you have tons of photos hanging around in your computer somewhere, waiting for a reason to be shown to the blogging world, hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules for joining in.

This Sunday Selections being my bee’s knees edition; Kim is Queen of the Bee’s Knees! She participated in ‘the worlds greatest shave’ to raise money for a leukaemia foundation. Not only Kim’s frog ponds rock, she does too! Follow the above links to her blog and see the evidence for yourself.

And Kim… you look really good with short hair!

 

So, back to the Sunday Selections; I did take some photographs of buzzing bees this week that I thought you might like:

Sunday Selections #60: The ‘longing for spring’ edition

It’s Sunday again. Time for the Sunday Selections, hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock. They do, you know.
Anyway, if you have tons of photos hanging around in your computer somewhere, waiting for a reason to be shown to the blogging world, hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules for joining in.

This Sunday I thought I’d get into spring-mood again and just randomly pick some photos from a folder dated May 2009. Our first foal was born in April 2009 and she, her mom and our other horse stayed for about 6 weeks with the horses and foals of friends in luscious green meadows nearby. The first two photos I shot there. The last three are of our garden and are mainly there to remind me that it will look like that again soon, for it is now in a sorry, muddy state.
Each winter I lose faith and cannot believe that it will ever look pretty, green and flowery again. And each spring I’m proved wrong.
So, this year I’m keeping the faith! And my fingers crossed.

Sunday Selections #58: The lousy shots of birds edition

I’ve been trying to shoot birds lately. With my camera mind you, not with a shotgun. Anyway, difficult thing to do. I often hear them, but don’t see them. And just before I do see them, they see me and fly off. Occasionally I manage to get a decent photo and sometimes I post them in my ‘normal’ posts, but more often I get lousy shots that I find difficult to delete, because they are the only shots of that particular bird I have. Apart from the robin. I have loads of robin-photos. He follows me around the garden, trying to get into the picture.

The not so good shots are therefore pointlessly hanging around in my computer, until it’s Sunday. Yay! Sunday Selections time. Hosted by the lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock. If you, like I, have folders full of photos waiting to be seen, hop over to the rocking frog ponds, follow the almost non-existent rules and join in.

I can see two birds in this shot. A male ‘merel’ (in Dutch) or blackbird and a ‘koperwiek’ or redwing.

 

A ‘koolmees’ or great tit. Strange name.

 

The robin managed to get his photo taken. Again.

 

This is a ‘winterkoninkje’ or wren (I think. I’m sure it’s a winterkoninkje, but not sure of its English name). It is one of the smallest birds in Europe, about 10 centimetres long. His tail always points upwards. It’s a quick mover and builds its nests near the ground in hedges or shrubs. Somewhere dense enough to get some shelter and feel safe.

This is more of a close up, but he just wouldn’t sit still *sigh*. Still, I’m very happy that I did get a shot of him/her. I will persist and do my best to get a terrific photo of a ‘winterkoninkje’ one day. We’ll have cake that day.

Oh, and look who I’ve spotted in the garden, checking out trees to build a home in perhaps? Or more likely, looking for food. I suspect he’ll rather have a dead birch, there are plenty of them around, to make his nest in.

Yep, it is a ‘grote bonte specht’ or woodpecker. Perhaps it is the same one I photographed with his family last year? Who knows.

Sunday Selections #57: The random selection

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Selections is hosted by Kim from Frogpondsrock and is the place to post those photos that have been hanging around for far too long in folders on your computer. If you have poor, unseen photos lurking somewhere in the depths of your computer, join in and hop over to the rocking frog ponds to follow the almost non-existent rules.

This week I thought I’d give you an impression of last week’s weather. Blue skies, sun, snow and freezing. Quite nice actually.
Yesterday I went shopping with a friend in Groningen and people were ice skating on the canals. It looked so picturesque. But of course I didn’t have a camera with me. Perhaps I’ll go back to Groningen today to take some photos. Apparently today is the last day people can skate, because thaw will set in later this afternoon. We’ll see what the day will bring.

I tawt I taw a biwdy

 

When shooting this little birdy (probably the same one as in my previous post) I didn’t have to balance on one leg, while closing a gate at the same time as taking the photo. Life is much simpler when you just do one thing at a time. Really. I should try it more often.

 

Every time I bring a wheelbarrow full of horse manure to our muck heap, I see this little guy (or girl) sitting on top of the heap.

Our muck heap functions as a cheep cheap delicatessen shop, providing lots of yummy little insects and worms and it has a very diverse clientele. Robins aren’t as shy as a lot of the other customers, giving me a perfect opportunity to practice photography without having to do my famous, but very unsuccessful tree imitation to try and blend into the background.
The robin doesn’t care that I really don’t look like a tree and that one of my branches makes strange whirring and whizzing noises.

He, on the other hand, kept a sharp eye on me.

Romance?

Yesterday I went outside, in the freezing cold (just as we thought that spring was coming, winter arrived with –5 Celsius/23 Fahrenheit), to shoot some birds. Not for dinner mind you. ‘Shooting’ as in taking photographs.

I find photographing birds very difficult. They are quick and notice me ages before I notice them. I will have to explain the difference between a camera and a gun to them one day. But I managed to take some reasonable shots. Mostly of lots of branches with some birds hidden behind them. And then I saw these two wood pigeons. Since I’m not an expert on wood pigeons, I haven’t a clue if these are two boys or a boy and a girl. Or perhaps even two girls.

But I felt they were a boy and a girl and that there was something romantic going on, up there in the tree. And they didn’t take any notice of me at all, only having eyes for each other.

Aww. Sweet.

Only, then I went inside (did I mention it was, and is, bitterly cccccold outside?), looked through the kitchen window and the before so peaceful pigeons were fluttering around, seemingly attacking each other. Oh I don’t know. Was he trying to… you know… and did she think: “not on the first date honey!”, or was it a lovers’ tiff? Or have I totally misinterpreted things and were they two guys, checking each other out and then trying to chase the other away?

Do any of you speak pigeon?

Sunday Selections: #55, The woodpecker edition #2

Sunday Selections, THE time and place to post those photos that have been aimlessly hanging around on your computer. The lovely Kim from Frogpondsrock hosts this meme. If you want to join in, just hop over to the rocking frog ponds and follow the almost non-existent rules.

So, here’s the second lot of the photos I took of the woodpecker family. Daddy Woodpecker was quite a busy boy, feeding his hungry child(ren) (I think there was only one baby, but I could be wrong). I know that Mommy Woodpecker was nearby, but she didn’t trust me enough to take her turn in feeding the little one.

I have so many shots of the woodpeckers (most of them not very good, but that is why they were still hanging around in a folder) that I’m going to spread them out over a couple of Sunday Selections. So I know you’ll be back here next Sunday. It’s a cunning plan! Next week I’ll post the rest of the shots and then I will have to go through my folders again for shots of different subjects, that haven’t been posted yet. Oh, there are lots and lots and lots of them.