Scatterday Challenge for December - "Sunrise / Sunset" #2

(Three years ago) as the sun set slowly in the west... we floated down the Nile on a felucca organised by Jenny.

Ahhhh.....

Today I'm thankful for... Flowers

It's hot today, really quite uncomfortably hot. I could have a good moan about how hard it is trying to get Christmas shopping done in this weather.

But NaBloPoMo has given us a gentle nudge to find things to be thankful for every day. I may not always blog about them, but it's certainly a worthwhile exercise and an uplifting way to face life.

So today I am thankful for the beauty of flowers, the heat and sunshine that grows them, and our great God who has his hand on all things.

I do enjoy making Christmas gifts by hand...

... but too often I run out of time. It's several years since I've made one of these, but I was surprised and pleased at how quickly the fiddly part was accomplished.

Tonight I stitched grub roses onto four pieces of Dupion silk, ready to whip up some little Christmas gifts for my cleaners.

A different colourway for each.

I'll reveal these little items when I've managed to find my sewing machine under the growing pile of Christmas shopping, set it up and stitch up the necessary seams.

Any idea what they might be?

A purple carpet

A couple of weeks ago the lawn of our church garden was covered in a purple carpet of jacaranda flowers. The glumness of the weather seemed to intensify the colour.

...so I played around with the colour filter

Not quite as vivid as I had hoped when I set the camera to take a black and white photo with the jacaranda flowers highlighted in purple - but still pretty, don't you think? Looks more like a northern hemisphere autumn scene than the prelude to a Sydney summer, though!

Scatterday Challenge for December - "Sunrise / Sunset" #1

This month, just because it's Christmas and she's a generous kind of gal, Di has given us two themes for our photos. The one for earlier in the month is Sunrise and Sunset, so get set for some of my favourite shots of God's handiwork.

Being more of an 'owl' than a 'fowl', I've seen more sunsets than sunrises. But this one was worth the early rise - (again delving into my treasure trove of recent holiday pics) - sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.

Enjoy!

Pudie likes to think she's a tiger

Carefully camouflaged against the tiger-striped rug, Pudie lies very still! Can you see her?