zoom out at rugby 7s

at the weekend I had time off from volunteering with the Commonwealth Games to be a spectator at the rugby 7s - a fantastic 2 days of competition, enthusiastic crowds, big cheers to encourage the under dogs, crowd singing, amazing athleticism and stamina, some close matches (and some annihilations), the first loss for New Zealand in 4 sets of competition (beaten by South Africa in the finals) and  excruciating 4th place for the team I'm working with - Samoa - so they missed out on the medals.

Here is the Samoan team in a team talk and zooming out on the stadium (usually used for football / soccer)

I'm way behind in visiting blogs and commenting but look forward to seeing what you share this week when I settle down for my catch up
[don't know why linky not appearing - have updated several times - hope it comes right durign the day, in the meantime please copy your link into your comment]

zoom in on the wires

travelling by train to and from my volunteer role has provided me with plenty of overhead wires to scan for birds for one of the items in Rinda's scavenger hunt.  Since the hunt began and I've been looking for birds on a wire I've relaised that I rarely see overhead wires because the wires are underground in the urban areas.  So I was delighted to see so many lines along the rail routes.  Of course catghing a photo of birds on a wire while the train zips by is not going to happen.  So when I spotted a pigeo on the wire while I was sitting at the station waiting for the connecting train I had to snap it

what, you don't see the bird?  try zoomed in?  OK I've put on an arrow to help!  I'm hoping I'll find a better shot of birds  on a wire before the end of the hunt.

looking forward to seeing what everyone is sharing this week.  I'm still flat out with the volunteering (and commute) so my comment leaving has reduced but I am managing to visit everyone who shares.

summer scavenger hunt–update 2

I didn’t plan to share the items in numeric order but my recent finds are items 5 to 8, plus 18, as it happens

love how various overlaps with other summer projects and memes are popping up

 

making good progress, including 1 from my ‘eyes wide open’ category (tattoo) and 1 from my ‘will need to work on that’ category (waterfall).

Thank you Rinda for another great scavenger hunt list.

zoom in on Nessie

this fabulous modern sculpture of Nessie graces the big square in the commonwealth athlete village - I'm anticipating observing some fun selfie and group shots on that bench in her middle

looking forward to seeing what you all have to share this week - I doubt I will be able to leave you all a comment as I'm blog reading on the train with my tablet and find that a less than stellar combo for comment writing - but I will visit them all and appreciate them

5 in 5 with a bit of whimsy

Joining in with Sandie’s monthly 5 in 5 challenge to take photos over 5 minutes and then share the best 5.  I thought I’d head into my garden for some shots and then decided to add some whimsy -

fighting a path through the mass of rocket

up the mint stalks to spy out the route to the strawberries

across the honeysuckle vines

down the apple tree

and finally enjoying the strawberries at the end of the expedition.

Summer of colour shimmers

Sadly the penultimate week of summer of colour for this year and Kristen gave us a bold pair of primaries with a hint of light

as my photo starting point this week I used a fabulous pattern that I has spotted on the surface of the river as the sun shimmered off the current when the incoming tide meets the flow of the river

and played with pixel magic until I had these two images that I love

I will be returning to these patterns for some more play with other colours

and I had the appropriate wools in my stash so came up with this charity blanket square – showing both sides as the pattern looks different front and back

I know there will be plenty of lovely interpretations of these colours in more mediums than I can imagine – check them out here

Zoom in on 'my' nation

my volunteer role at the Commonwealth Games starts this weekend.  I'm part of a team of gofers assigned to work for the team managers of one of the national teams and  'my' nation is ... drum roll

Samoa - a Pacific Island nation north east of New Zealand.  I have visited there once, have Samoan friends and feel familiar with the culture.  I'm pleased.

For the next 4 weeks I'll be flat out with this role but intend to keep posting zoom in zoom out.  I will be reading blogs on my commute but doubt I'll be able to comment as much as usual.  I have some posts set up to publish in coming weeks but all news of the games will have to wait until I'm finished.

looking forward to what else will be revealed in your zoom pairs this week

numbers of note in June

thanks to Julie for the monthly invite to reflect on the past months through counts and numbers.

I had a busy month and here are some of the more countable aspects

I enjoyed a ‘speed crafting’ event where we spent 20 minutes on each of 5 crafts – tangle doodling, icing roses, decorating pegs, tissue flower, and blackwork embroidery.  We were in groups of 8 and moved around the 5 tables which were set up with materials and instructions.  A fun way to craft and try out different things.

 

I was busy with my crochet hook – I didn’t feel as if I had a hook in my hand all the time but when I put together the collage it looks like I did.  I made 50 small animals (spiders, birds and aliens) ready for a craft sale in September to raise fund for my crafting for charity group; made 2 ducks that my nephew asked for to release to raise awareness of being on donor registers;  completed 20 squares to be sent to South Africa; and made a summery string of bunting for myself.

I read 5 e-books, 4 of which were set in the past – in 1260s – 90s, 1840s and 1940s

I tried out the new tram with 3 journeys and managed to capture a photo of 2 trams travelling towards each other. 

I made 2 trips to Glasgow for training as volunteer in the Commonwealth Games, including to see the village but we are not allowed to share photos of that yet (it will no doubt dominate my July numbers).

I saw 103 swans on one day on the river – they congregate because there is lots of food and it is safe while they moult.  Also saw a big nursery raft of eider ducks – I counted over 40 chicks in one group.  And spotted this mother goosander with 6 chicks hitching a ride on her back. 

I enjoyed 1 lunch at a Michelin star restaurant (Kitchin) where we had the set lunch which consisted of 3 courses that we chose and 3 that they delivered. The crudités and blue cheese dip in the photo was the first that we were surprised with.  The other photo was the dessert I chose – elderflower panna cotta with gooseberry consommé and biscotti with gooseberry jelly dots – all delicious.

Thanks again to Julie for the invitation to record our month in numbers and provide a place to share the links.

Summer of colour blossoms

Kristen gave us a lovely classic contrast with a twist for our summer of colour palette this week – very close the the colours I have on the walls in my craft room, taken from a lovely floral cushion cover

I used a photo of some lovely patterns created by shadows of bare trees as the starting point of my pixel magic this week

and came up with this abstract piece which I feel has some lovely energy and movement

I found some wools in roughly the right colours to create another charity blanket square, echoing some of the shapes

looking forward to see how others have used these colours this week – thank you to Kristen for another lovely colour challenge

zooming out on the lookout

enjoying the sunshine here with a family day out for my Dad's birthday - I managed to capture most of the family in a nice grouping (Mum doesn't do lots of stairs)

and zooming out to show the lookout (in the roof garden)  that they were all standing on to give the interesting perspective in the photo - it was very bright up there with the pale tiles which is why everyone is squinting.

looking forward all of your zooms as we head into the second half of the year