Things that fly

 

As part of the August Break I thought I'd show you a couple of the visitors we get in the garden. They're not rare or anything but still very beautiful.

This first is a swallowtail butterfly I captured when I was sat in a cafe run by a couple of friends of mine. If you are ever in Kefalos it's called T42 and the food is excellent and you get such a warm welcome.

I took my camera with me because Tony who is one of the owners had grown some really spectacular asters and I wanted to get some photos. As I sat there wondering what to shoot a swallowtail butterfly came along and quite happily posed for pics. This is quite fitting really when you think of where the shot was taken and don't you think the aster looks like a coconut madelaine cake ?? Maybe that's just me :-)

This is the result. I used a texture by Leslie Nicole (see button on right panel)

The second photo is of a dragonfly who was sat in the early morning sun drying himself out. I didn't realise they looked so cute up close !!

I'm looking forward to having a mooch around your blogs later on today . . . .I'm off to make the beds now.

Love Teresa XX :-)

No August Break......

 . . . . . .but I wanted to post something anyway.

I was down near the harbour on a really still summer evening and the patterns in the water were lovely. I only had my "point and shoot" with me but I snapped this and then worked on it a little.

Hope you enjoy it :-)

Just off for a cuppa, see you soon xx

Another day, another photo (or 2)

Competition entry using "purple prose" at http://frenchkisstextures.com/

I'm staying in my comfort zone today . . . . .flowers and I must get out with my camera at some point and do some more snapping otherwise I'm going to get get twitchy :-)

I know that if you're sat under grey skies this will seem difficult to understand but I'm really looking forward to the middle of September, the summer will almost be over. It's the autumn, winter and spring I enjoy most over here. It can be cold in the winter and rainy, but usually not for too long and I can get out and about whenever I want. In the summer unless it's early morning or evening, any trips outside have to be limited because of the fierce sun, even then I tend to hop from shade to shade. It's great if you want to spend the day at the beach which is lovely of course but for general living . . . . .roll on September !!

Ok so here we are for today.

This first shot is of Wisteria and treated with a texture by Leslie Nicole http://frenchkisstextures.com/
This is an entry in a competition at her site using the texture "purple prose"

and I thought I'd keep the purple theme going with this close up of a freesia.

I loved the way the sunlight was shining through the petals.


Looking forward to seeing what you are posting today .
Hope to see you soon. Love  Teresa xx :-)

Here's another one for the August Break called chimneys . . . . not one of my more creative titles :-)

It was taken on The island of Nisyros when I went there for the day this July

Have a good day,
Love Teresa xx :-)

The August Break

I'm joining in with this challenge, whereby we have to post a photo for each day in August.

Now as I'm delighted to have any excuse to post my flower pics I'm really looking forward to this :-)

One problem :-( I haven't any flowers left in my garden to photo, they've all hunkered on down for the summer but I do have lots in reserve I can share and there are some gardens around that are watered every day which are still producing blooms which I can snap away at and . . . . I could always think outside of the box and photograph other things!!!

I'm in Greece you see and our summers are fierce. We don't have rain between the end of May and September or October so everything gets very crispy!!

A lot of my photos have textures layers added and all of them have been worked on in Elements (can't afford the grown up version ) to get the look that I want and to make them be the photograph I would have taken in the first place if I was a better photographer!!

If I get the hang of that mouse over thingy I'll include that as well.

I'm really looking forward to this and to seeing lots of lovely stuff.

This is a dahlia with a texture by Leslie Nicole http://frenchkisstextures.com/

And this is a shot of campsis with a texture by Kim Klassen http://www.kimklassencafe.com/thecafe/

Thanks for looking and I hope you call again soon, Teresa xx :-)

It's Tuesday so it's Texture Tuesday

It's Tuesday so it's time for me to post my Texture Tuesday entry over at Kim's site http://www.kimklassencafe.com/thecafe/ and I know there will be lots of inspiring for me to see later.

Anyway here's my entry this week, Freesias which I photographed after a rain shower when the sun had reappeared.

For those of you who would like to know what I did to the photo, I've detailed the steps below.

After some editing to increase the detail I used the "subtly yours" texture and masked out (black brush) various parts of the photo at different opacities . I used the soft light blend mode.

I then duplicated the layer two more times using soft light and adjusted the mask layer to get the look I wanted.

I used a burn brush at a very low opacity around the corners and went over with the impressionist brush at a very low opacity to blur certain areas.

That was it. If anyone wants any more info just contact me

Thanks for popping by, I love visitors . . . . . .
See you soon, Teresa xx :-)

If I were God

I’ve always thought of myself as a fairly average sort of person and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way but my life experiences have conformed to most peoples, given that there is a wide degree of variance anyway.

Not for me unopened parachutes, lottery wins, being struck by lightning . . . I think you get the drift . . . and the reason I’m telling you all this? Well I‘ve concluded that in my Christian life the things that I feel, the problems I have and the doubts I experience will be common to the majority of Christians as we go about our daily lives. So if I tell you about myself and the insights I’ve had which have drawn me closer to God and pass them on, maybe you will be able to relate to them and if I’ve seen something that makes my walk with God, more joyous, more steadfast, more loving, then maybe you will benefit.

So, the title of this post“ If I were God” and the thoughts it produces are like a can of worms. These thoughts often sit just below our conscious thoughts, and we often suppress them because we tell ourselves that we know and believe that God’s ways are above ours, we just can’t understand everything yet. And I really, truly believe that, but . . . .I’ve found that whilst I don’t admit to myself that there are things which I would do differently “ If I were God” things that I would change, that I wouldn’t allow to happen,  then it’s like having a part of me that I hide away because it’s not acceptable to God, something I want to keep hidden because I’m frightened that if I admit it, then it will be starting on a slippery slope of doubt and I don’t know where it will end.

But over the last few years I’ve begun to see that God’s love for me is so great that I just can’t begin to appreciate it or experience it without total trust on my part that nothing I can think say or do can shock Him. In fact when I’ve got places in my heart that I keep closed off because I’m ashamed of them then, in fact,  that’s a place that I won’t let God enter and I need Him in every area of my life.

His love really is beyond measure, he loves us totally and we can trust Him completely.

Speak again soon,
Love Teresa xx :-)