How's your garden looking after fine weather and time?

[blakeyboy]

Tree Peony doing it's stuff.

I do wish it repeat flowered...

 

[Peckris 2]

3 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Wasn't Burberry considered to be the choice of "chavs", when that word was fashionable a few years back?

I remember going to the pub with a mate about 2005, and when we came out there was a sticker on his car which said "oi chav, your car is shit". 

Yes, and what a comedown from the 80s when I was a computer programmer for them, and we got generous staff discounts.

[copper123]

12 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Wasn't Burberry considered to be the choice of "chavs", when that word was fashionable a few years back?

I remember going to the pub with a mate about 2005, and when we came out there was a sticker on his car which said "oi chav, your car is shit". 

INNIT!

[copper123]

12 hours ago, blakeyboy said:

Tree Peony doing it's stuff.

I do wish it repeat flowered...

 

Nice bush

[blakeyboy]

11 hours ago, Peckris 2 said:

Yes, and what a comedown from the 80s when I was a computer programmer for them, and we got generous staff discounts.

Yeah- I can see you now, in your cap and jacket hanging around outside the off license looking tough.....!

[Unwilling Numismatist]

you people either have too much garden or too much time or both.

My garden looks like it did before the fair weather.

Even the locals won't go near it.

[Fubar]

Luckily the local wildlife will come to my jungle.

Being in total lockdown because of vulnerable family and being a member of the photo club means I have limited access to wildlife to photograph. Some will sit still while trying to distract the cat from the nest. Unfortunately this means I took over 200 pictures this morning.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Fubar

[Rob]

The sparrows were nest building this morning as were the resident blackbirds. A mouse was noted pilfering the seed we put out for the birds six weeks ago. One hedgehog has reappeared, though I suspect mum and dad didn't make it as one was found rotted away in next door's garden when the lawn was cut and the other appeared on a neighbour's patio a month or more ago having been shredded by a strimmer(?). Last year we had 6 in total.

[Peckris 2]

6 hours ago, Fubar said:

Luckily the local wildlife will come to my jungle.
 

Being in total lockdown because of vulnerable family and being a member of the photo club means I have limited access to wildlife to photograph. Some will sit still while trying to distract the cat from the nest. Unfortunately this means I took over 200 pictures this morning.

What gear do you  use?

[Fubar]

19 hours ago, Peckris 2 said:

What gear do you  use?

That was taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 bridge camera (20MP) in aperture priority mode and max zoom (400mm equivalent). Also in burst mode.
I gave up on multi lens SLRs when film died but I've recently acquired a Canon EOS 700D DSLR with an 18 to 200mm lens that seems to function well. I must save up for some more lenses but find that the Panasonic is a lot more convenient. Lugging around bags full of lenses still doesn't really appeal.
I've been into photography since school days but only recently joined the local photographic society to see if I could learn anything new. As far as composition goes there are a lot of intriguing ideas about and at least I'm not now relying on the camera doing all the work in auto so joining has helped a bit.

I had thought of digging out one of these museum pieces cluttering up the garage. 😕

Edited April 19, 2020 by Fubar
spacing

[Unwilling Numismatist]

6 hours ago, Fubar said:

That was taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 bridge camera (20MP) in aperture priority mode and max zoom (400mm equivalent). Also in burst mode.
I gave up on multi lens SLRs when film died but I've recently acquired a Canon EOS 700D DSLR with an 18 to 200mm lens that seems to function well. I must save up for some more lenses but find that the Panasonic is a lot more convenient. Lugging around bags full of lenses still doesn't really appeal.
I've been into photography since school days but only recently joined the local photographic society to see if I could learn anything new. As far as composition goes there are a lot of intriguing ideas about and at least I'm not now relying on the camera doing all the work in auto so joining has helped a bit.

I had thought of digging out one of these museum pieces cluttering up the garage. 😕

I have a 760D and a bunch of lenses, but after seeing what the new mobile phones can achieve, I'm starting to reconsider my direction regarding photographic equipment.

 

[Peckris 2]

9 hours ago, Fubar said:

That was taken with my Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 bridge camera (20MP) in aperture priority mode and max zoom (400mm equivalent). Also in burst mode.
I gave up on multi lens SLRs when film died but I've recently acquired a Canon EOS 700D DSLR with an 18 to 200mm lens that seems to function well. I must save up for some more lenses but find that the Panasonic is a lot more convenient. Lugging around bags full of lenses still doesn't really appeal.
I've been into photography since school days but only recently joined the local photographic society to see if I could learn anything new. As far as composition goes there are a lot of intriguing ideas about and at least I'm not now relying on the camera doing all the work in auto so joining has helped a bit.

I had thought of digging out one of these museum pieces cluttering up the garage. 😕

 

I agree - bags of lenses pay only a minor dividend over what you can get from the latest mirrorless cameras from the likes of Fuji, Olympus, and Panasonic. I have a Lumix LX100 and while it wouldn't yield professional results, can match many prosumer DSLRs. I like the m4/3 sensor particularly when matched with the multi-AR cameras from Leica and the Lumix LX series.

 

2 hours ago, Unwilling Numismatist said:

I have a 760D and a bunch of lenses, but after seeing what the new mobile phones can achieve, I'm starting to reconsider my direction regarding photographic equipment.

Yeah. They do lack some of bells and whistles of cameras such as time lapse, but the gap is closing fast and really the newer iPhones and Samsungs deliver shots you'd be very hard pushed to tell from expensive enthusiast cameras.

[copper123]

Is not that robin picture just heavenly............

[Fubar]

13 hours ago, Unwilling Numismatist said:

I have a 760D and a bunch of lenses, but after seeing what the new mobile phones can achieve, I'm starting to reconsider my direction regarding photographic equipment.

 

Mobile phone cameras are very good for instant results and that's what I liken them to. The old Kodak Instamatic cameras.
There's too much electronic processing going on for really sharp photography. I have a Samsung and it has all sorts of ways of taking a snapshot at 20MP but once you put it into a photo processing program it doesn't look quite right. Because of their construction there's only programming to change depth of field and all the other things you normally fiddle with. All very clever and sufficient for everyday use. Some mobile phone cameras are also a lot better than others.
I suppose it comes down to personal choice and what you normally use a camera for.

[blakeyboy]

3 hours ago, copper123 said:

Is not that robin picture just heavenly............

Most pleasing picture of a Robin I've seen for years.

We used to have a very tame ( probably German migrating) pair that used to fly round the house looking for us 

to tell us the mealworms bowl was empty.

[damian1986]

This is a dwarf Dahlia sp. I have half a dozen of them. Seems early for them to be out but nice to see 👍

[blakeyboy]

Where are you?

My cosseted dahlias are just waking up!

[1949threepence]

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the garden (and gardening there) over the last few weeks, during the fine weather, and listened as never before to the bird song. Watching the birds, and trying to ID which ones they are. Some like the blackbird, sparrow, thrush, wood pigeon and robin are obvious, but there's others I don't know.

I've noted that there are nests in some of the bushes, especially in the rockery which is just outside the conservatory window. Fascinating seeing the birds fly in and out. I reckon with one tall bush, there are sparrow occupying the lower half, and blackbirds occupying the upper half. Made a lot of sense as the bush is very thick, so must be comparatively warm and dry inside. Even seen them fly in with straw in their beaks.

Interesting when I sit out there they just continue with their normal chirping. But as soon as the cat comes out, they start their alarm calls - even though she's not actually that interested in them. On one occasion a group of them "mobbed" her, and she ran back indoors. 

The almost complete absence of planes means you can listen to them uninterrupted. Especially as all the neighbours seem unusually quiet as well.      

[bagerap]

[mrbadexample]

11 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the garden (and gardening there) over the last few weeks, during the fine weather, and listened as never before to the bird song. Watching the birds, and trying to ID which ones they are. Some like the blackbird, sparrow, thrush, wood pigeon and robin are obvious, but there's others I don't know.

I've noted that there are nests in some of the bushes, especially in the rockery which is just outside the conservatory window. Fascinating seeing the birds fly in and out. I reckon with one tall bush, there are sparrow occupying the lower half, and blackbirds occupying the upper half. Made a lot of sense as the bush is very thick, so must be comparatively warm and dry inside. Even seen them fly in with straw in their beaks.

Interesting when I sit out there they just continue with their normal chirping. But as soon as the cat comes out, they start their alarm calls - even though she's not actually that interested in them. On one occasion a group of them "mobbed" her, and she ran back indoors. 

The almost complete absence of planes means you can listen to them uninterrupted. Especially as all the neighbours seem unusually quiet as well.      

Me too. Made a bird table yesterday from stuff I had in the garage.

[1949threepence]

2 hours ago, mrbadexample said:

Me too. Made a bird table yesterday from stuff I had in the garage.

Nice job, Jon. 

[mrbadexample]

46 minutes ago, 1949threepence said:

Nice job, Jon. 

It is if you don't look too closely. 

[copper123]

Spent the last week or so painting the new garden shed (well sixmonths old)- quite bright colours - it looks a bit like a beach hut now .

will try to put a pic on soon blue and cream in case your interested

[blakeyboy]

Welsh poppies self-seed amongst the elephant grass and the albums, and it always works....

 

[blakeyboy]

On 5/12/2020 at 10:43 PM, 1949threepence said:

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the garden (and gardening there) over the last few weeks, during the fine weather, and listened as never before to the bird song. Watching the birds, and trying to ID which ones they are. Some like the blackbird, sparrow, thrush, wood pigeon and robin are obvious, but there's others I don't know.

I've noted that there are nests in some of the bushes, especially in the rockery which is just outside the conservatory window. Fascinating seeing the birds fly in and out. I reckon with one tall bush, there are sparrow occupying the lower half, and blackbirds occupying the upper half. Made a lot of sense as the bush is very thick, so must be comparatively warm and dry inside. Even seen them fly in with straw in their beaks.

Interesting when I sit out there they just continue with their normal chirping. But as soon as the cat comes out, they start their alarm calls - even though she's not actually that interested in them. On one occasion a group of them "mobbed" her, and she ran back indoors. 

The almost complete absence of planes means you can listen to them uninterrupted. Especially as all the neighbours seem unusually quiet as well.      

Strange thing is, people are saying how loud the birds are.

They are probably 6-8dB quieter because they have less plane and traffic noise to compete with.

But humans don't have to try and listen to the birds against the background noise now, so they seem louder to us...

Training up some robins- they now come just into the kitchen to look for us.

We're not expecting them to be as good as a pair some years ago, which were obviously the ones that migrate to and from Germany every year,

and are way pushier than the ones that stay put. Those ones would  sit on your hand while you actually poked a mealworm into their mouths...

If the food ran out, they would fly round the house looking for us.

Here's a pic of the blackbird last year. Asking my wife for more worms.

In the bloody kitchen.

Only when really close can you see that a male blackbird's feet are AMAZING.