The Letter Q

I have been dreading this one, but it wasn't actually as hard as I thought.

Qwerty keyboard



Quail



Quartz

Odd One Out

All of these pictures were taken today.  Spot the odd one out!

Is it the duck out of water?

 Is it the moorhen?

Is it because these ducks are facing left, not right?

Or a duck in a swimming pool...........

Darling Buds of May

Sometimes my northern hemisphere origins betray me.  My first thought when I noticed all the pink buds in the garden was "darling buds of May" although this expression only makes sense if you are north of the equator.

 Camellia

 Standard rose (curiously the buds are pink but the flowers are white)

Azalea



In fact the expression was first used by Shakespeare in one of his sonnets:

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May
And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

Nowadays it is said to mean an appreciation of what is fresh and new.

That works better for me.

Planting in Pots

I love planting things in containers because you can move them around or even give them as a present to someone.

I find it is better to have them in groups, as a single pot can look quite lonely whereas multiple pots create more of a focal point.

 Indoor succulents - good in a bathroom

Outdoor succulents displayed on an old wooden ladder

Violas in old glass jars

Symmetry in Nature

We had a major overhaul of the massive palm trees in our garden and now I can see parts of them  I never could see before.  They create wonderful shade in the summer but I never appreciated the symmetry of them until now.

The Letter P

Having a new grandchild is very distracting and I have been remiss in taking photos to post, unless you want to see hundreds of baby photos.

As well as being for "photos", P is for:

 Pith helmet

Pigeon

Paper

Good Things come in Small Packages

This is Jacob.

Born Saturday 9 July 2011.

My first grandchild, and a real treasure!