Our garden...

As some of you know, we have a new member of the family, Izzy, a beautiful 1 year old Lurcher rescue...she's coming out of her shell a little more each day, trusting us a little more and finding her comfy places around the place. She's having a 'squirm up' on the rug behind me as I type, something she has only just started doing in the last 2 days or so...she plays when we aren't in the room now but does wag more and will occasionally even come up to us...yes, the people in her life before really did a number on her, poor thing, but we'll get her there...she can now go in the garden off lead and she's very good  following me about and flopping down next to me. (they can jump fences easily so we needed to wait until she was happy being here until giving her more freedom!)

She's now bathed and groomed and has her proper Lurcher collar and tag in place! We're having some amazing early morning walks and I'm seeing wild flowers opening as the warmer weather has come this last few days, I've yet to take the camera as we're still mastering some training so I know I'd just get all tangled up :) she's a real blessing, I'm so glad we found her and she does make me laugh every day!

I've been really enjoying the coverage of the Chelsea flower show this week, the planting and designs are wonderful, then I go out to our garden which has a decidedly rural 'au naturale' look about it and potter about, it has been lovely out there this week...above is one of my Columbines that are just flowering now, I do love the fairy flowers :)



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Snakeshead Fritillaries

I took these pictures about  a month ago at one of my favourite National Trust gardens, Sissinghurst...I remember seeing these beautiful fairy flowers for the first time a few years ago and being spellbound by them...as I wandered through the meadow this year, looking at these beauties I could hear other people cooing over them too, studying the abstract checker board pattern and watching as they swayed gently in the breeze...

KK's 'Subtly Yours' texture to lighten the background

linking with: photo show off, texture tuesday, tones on tues, tues tips & pics, sweet shot tues, show off your shot, inspired tues 

Old fashioned colours

I love Zinnias...the patterns in their petals, the unlikely colour combinations that actually really look superb...

 linking with this or that thursday, photo art friday, photo friday, flower art friday, weekend flowers, flowers on saturday, pink saturday, weekly topshot

A quick Tuesday tulip!

What a busy time...turns out our lovely new girl Izzy is excellent in the car so we journeyed about all weekend with her...having taken a break I'm now a bit behind, so a quick edit today...

I used Kim's 'subtly yours' texture and took the picture to lightroom and played with the saturation to give an old faded retro look...hope you're having better weather where you are, it's freezing here again!



linking with: photo show off, texture tuesday, tones on tues, tues tips & pics, sweet shot tues, show off your shot, inspired tues

Positive Change...

I want to thank everyone for your kind wishes regarding our new addition, Izzy...each day that passes, she finds herself a little more, her personality is beginning to shine through...I feel/hope she's realising that she's with 'her people' now and that she can at last begin to relax, play and enjoy life, maybe for the first time in her life...it feels like a real honour and a privilege to be able to help her, animals have always been a huge part of my life and it feels great to be re-connecting with a dog again...

I used my texture 'Umber' here to give a subtle warm tone

I used my texture 'Divine' to create a painterly, soft effect

I used my texture 'Umber' again here, it created depth in the colours and sharpened the image, it really brought out the colour in her eye!

Although our weather's been very wet here for weeks now, I managed to snap these pics yesterday, I'm looking forward to getting Izzy outside for some more picture taking once she's ok with that...and once the weathers better! And, yes, she really needs a bath, so her fur is a mess right now but again, we're waiting to give her a chance to settle first...it gives her that tousled look ;)

 linking with this or that thursday, photo art friday, photo friday, shoot, edit, submit & weekly topshot

Meet Izzy...

A new arrival here is a sweet girl called Izzy...she's a one year old lurcher who was rescued from the pound  a month ago by an amazing local rescue centre, Happy Endings...my partner and I are 'dog people' and we sadly had to say goodbye to our beloved Basil over 2 years ago to old age...we couldn't get past it enough to find someone new until now...I'm a firm believer about timing and synchronicity and Izzy needed us, it felt right and here she is...we're fostering her at the moment as she's sooo nervous we want to give her time to settle in and be sure she's happy here...overnight she looks better already and is acquainting herself with all the comfy places in the house...

'Golden' & 'Yesteryear' textures by Kim Klassen plus 'Old Times' frame by me! - collection 1 freebie (soft light opacity on the frame gives a nice soft border)

I've been feeling the need for different subject matter of late so you can expect a mixture of flowers and Izzy, I'm sure she's going to steal the show from now on... :)

Other news, if you haven't visited yet, please pop over to my new facebook page where you'll find 2 new exclusive free textures, if you are pleased with your results using them, I'd love to see...I have a Flickr group for anyone using RHWest Textures, so you can share your experiments and get ideas. You can post them on the facebook timeline too! We all have different ways of seeing things and this can be so inspiring...thank you to all that have already bought my new texture collections, I'm very grateful...it'll help us pay for the kibble :) check them out here to see how they work on different types of photographs...I'm quietly rather pleased with my slideshows...I'll be doing some more tutorials soon, videos to show some different ideas..I'm rather nervous about that though so bear with me!

linking with: photo show off, texture tuesday, tones on tues, tues tips & pics, sweet shot tues, show off your shot, inspired tues

Tulip Petal...

These Tulips have been gorgeous, now they're going over...every once in a while, I heard a gentle sound...another petal dropping...

'Kiss and Tell' Texture - Collection 2

 linking with this or that thursday, photo art friday, photo friday, flower art friday, weekend flowers, flowers on saturday, pink saturday, weekly topshot