Pixelventures Mood

This week Bastet’s Pixleventures asked us to show our mood. Spring always lifts my mood as the fragrance from flowers fill the air and the sun feels warm on my face. In Shanghai spring is slowly drifting in. What better example of spring than these beautiful tulips we bought last weekend from our local flower guy on the street.

We Drink Because We Are Poets hosts this weekly challenge and encourages us at verse as well as pics. This week I tried my hand at both.

 

I posted another Tourist in My Town look at SKYLINE earlier today. If you missed it you can check it out here.

Stay tuned…

 

Lotus in Bloom

If you just stopped by and saw my weekly photo challenge post on Focus you would have spotted the lotus blossoms. I thought I should show you some more of the beautiful blooms.

Lotus with seed pod in background

Last weekend my co-teacher, her husband and daughter brought us to Guyi Gardens in Shanghai, which was hosting the lotus exhibition until the end of August. Each summer lotus bloom all over China for about 2 months. Their season is just starting to come to an end. I have only seen lotus once while I have been here. Hangzhou has enormous blooms. We saw them as we drove around West Lake, but didn’t have the opportunity to get out and see them up close.

Here we wandered the park at leisure and I was able to snap a lot of photos. Unfortunately they grow in ponds, so you can’t always get up too close. Luckily I had a good zoom on the camera and could get in tight for a few shots. Many people with large tripods could be spotted throughout the park. The day was really hot, humid with a lot cloud cover. I can only imagine how brilliant the colours would have been in the sunshine.

The lotus pond

There were numerous ponds with lotus and others with lily pads. We spotted a few teeny tiny frogs and two bright red dragon flies. A small river twisted through the park and you could take a small boat to tour around. Instead we went to a little tea house that was in the centre of the garden where we had a quick break. I had a refreshing watermelon juice and we all snacked on dumplings. The cost of admission was a low 10 RMB per person (about $1.50) and family tickets were also available.

Red Dragon Fly

Can you spot the bee coming in for a landing?

lily pads

The colours ranged from pale pinks, to ivory-white and bright sunny yellow centres. I didn’t notice if the lotus had a fragrance, but they were just so beautiful and they looked like there was a light coming from within. Lotus root is also eaten and as I said in an earlier post I have tried it in a sweet mooncake and as a side dish with a sweet sticky sauce. Both taste delicious.

Stay tuned next week for more…

Focus: Weekly Photo Challenge

This week the theme is focus set over at Word Press. The idea is to show 2 similar shots with the background blurred in one and then sharp in the next. I decided to share a few shots I took last weekend when we went to a garden in Shanghai to look at the lotus flowers. I took numerous shots and here are just a few to share. Unfortunately I didn’t have 2 exactly the same.

Lotus bloom in focus and buds are blurred in the background.

The lotus are almost done for the season. Most were a pale pink, but as below some also come in white.

The pink bloom is in focus in the background and the white bloom is blurry in the foreground.

The lotus is a beautiful flower that grows in ponds all over China. They are quite large and their leaves massive. The roots can also be eaten. I have tried lotus root in moon cakes and as a side dish which was cooked in a sweet sticky sauce. YUM!

This is my submission for the Word Press theme Focus. Head over to see more examples or find out how to post your own.

Stay tuned…

 

Wild Flowers: Weekly Photo Challenges

Again I am up to combining themes… this week We Drink/Pixel adventures is looking for photos on plants or flowers and Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack is looking for wild…

Here is my contribution…

Wild flowers – thistles

Some lovely thistles… can you spot the bee?

Dandelion – a wild weed that grows anywhere

Dandelion ~ Author Unknown ~

There was a dandelion,

With lovely, fluffy hair,

That glistened in the sunshine,

And in the summer air.

And oh! This pretty dandelion

Soon grew old and grey,

And, sad to tell!

Her charming hair,

Blew many miles away.

Not sure what these were and they are the only ones I saw in the area. They were so tiny, but ever so cool.

Be sure to follow the links to see more or post your own 🙂

Stay tuned…

Weekly Photo Challenge: Patterns

This week word press has set the theme PATTERNS as the weekly photo challenge. I could post on so many different things as thoughts ran through my mind and I went through my archives. I thought about nature and decided to post on patterns that I have caught on film from nature. Enjoy!

 

Shanghai Botanical Gardens

Philippines FLower Pattern

Beijing – tree of 9 dragons

Tree Trunk -Botanical GArdens Shanghai

Sky Popcorn

Storm Clouds Rolling In

Willow’s patterns on her fur

 

What patterns have you seen in nature?

Have some ideas… want to see more? Then head over to Word Press here.

Stay tuned there is more…. another photo challenge to post on later.

Weekly Photo Challenges: Pale Colour

Word Press has set COLOUR as the theme this week while Ailsa has set PALE. I have decided to mingle the two themes since they can go hand in hand.

Blossom from Japanese Cherry tree

Bright Blossom and Pale Sky

Giant Easter Eggs

Orchids at Kerry

Instead of delving into the archives I took these photos Saturday and Sunday locally. The Easter Eggs and Orchids were taken at the Kerry Parkside Mall/Hotel here in Shanghai and the blossoms here in our apartment complex.

The mix of pale and vibrant colours are in each picture.

• photo one: a pale pink blossom and pale weak spring sunshine
• photo two: bright fuchsia pink blossoms against a pale baby blue sky
• photo three: brightly coloured Easter Eggs complimented with pale pastels
• photo four: pale white and yellow orchids set against rich chocolate brown wood

Join in the fun or see more examples by clicking the links above.

Stay tuned… next week I will post more on our trip to Beijing.

Waiting for Spring

This past week in Shanghai we had a taste of Spring. The winter season is shorter here and milder temperatures can come as early as mid-February. I enjoy the promise of spring, the longer days and warm sunshine.

Here are some dried flowers that I found in a garden when I was home in Canada this past December. It held on and is waiting for  the return of spring.

 

The original shot

focal black and white

pencil outline

lomo-ish

I played with a photography program and tried different effects with the same shot. Which is your favourite?

Stay tuned …

Weekly Photo Challenge: Today

This week’s photo challenge is TODAY from Word Press. You can’t use an old favourite you actually had to get out of the house and shoot! Great idea. Well fellow followers you know how busy I have been and there has been little free time to escape the monotony of life… reports are due in a few days and I had a unit to plan (last one for the year!), marking, editing reports… and then the chores around the house: laundry, shopping, ironing, cleaning up. I gave myself a few hours this weekend to post and catch up on some fellow blogs. I left that aside for a bit and went out with my camera while I did the shopping for an hour and hoped to catch something cool, interesting and worth posting. Well as Murphy’s Law would have it I came up with nothing. I always see the interesting when I don’t have the camera, or no time to make the shot. Today in search of things with my camera at the ready I saw nothing extraordinary. It was a dull cloudy day too…bah humbug!

Anyway I captured these flowers in my complex and I liked how the one bloom was 2 colours. So here is my photo from today. I am not happy with it and sorry to disappoint. I will be on the look out and maybe can try again tomorrow.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unfocused

That time again… weekly photo challenge.

Unfocused. You may curse or cheer this week’s theme. We’re looking for that picture which is unfocused. It may be completely intentional, or accidental. You might have thought about trashing it, but in the end it definitely conveys something. – Sara Rosso

Sara sets up these challenges and if you want to see more follow this link:

 

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/weekly-photo-challenge-unfocused/

I usually toss away the unfocused pictures… so easy in the world of digital… delete… which leaves space on the memory card for more. I did find 2 pictures… One of Holly sleeping in her basket with the stuffed bear. Too cute to delete. The other is some blossoms from Century Park in Shanghai last spring… This was intentional since the blossom up close is in focus and the background is  a blur.

Cuddled UP & Cute

Blossoms

What do you do with your unfocused pics?