Everyone who contributes their good and not so good photos has fun I hope and thanks to those being brave enough to show everyone your last photo for the month in its naked glory. It doesn’t have to be on the very last day of the month if you didn’t take any photos. Maybe it was earlier in the month when the last photo was taken.
So let’s see what you have for March 2023
The rules are simple: 1. Post the last photo on your SD card or last photo on your phone for the 31st March or whenever your last photo was taken. 2. No editing – who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like or the subject matter didn’t cooperate. 3. You don’t have to have any explanations, just the photo will do 4. Create a Pingback to this post or link in the comments 5. Use the tags The Last Photo and #LastOnTheCard
Xingfumama’s Three to One Photo Processing Challenge: April 2023
This is a fun photo challenge. I did spend too much time playing around (the last half of my cup of tea had gone cold!) Here is the clock tower on the Ballina Post Office. One day I hoping I will be there at 9:15 when it looks like a sleepy chicken 😂 This time it was a lovely sunny day. This photo it totally unedited. All the other three are editing and played with using Corel PaintShop Pro 2023 Ultimate software
This is an effect called Weathered. I set it to around 20% Had colour Match set at 100% Smooth the image at about 25% – I didn’t write down exactly what I had done sorry. Same for the next one. I tweaked the shadows and light a small amount on this photo
I am yet to utilise this effect to what I think I can produce. It is called Pointillism. I set it at around 50%, 100% Colour Match and Smooth Image was quite low as I like the sharpness on the edges
I went into a surrealist mode. Starting with Effect called Feedback. Most software would have Feedback along with Kaleidoscope usually. The Opacity 47% so you could see the clocks behind faintly. Made the shape elliptical. Intensity set at 51% This gives the size and number of “feedbacks”, moved it from the centre of the photo a bit. Added an elliptical vignette mainly light and feathered edges
Welcome to my March. I have already posted some bits and piece during March, so this one doesn’t have a photo overload.
March was a most unusual month weather wise. Summer was mild, things were a bit hot in February but that is normal. February is our hottest month. March is usually mild as that’s when it is good to plant a lot of things in the garden but mainly for planting Australian native plants. The mild weather and occasional rain makes March ideal.
This year there have been so many hot days in March a lot of plants have been kept in their pots so they are easy to water. Some of those whose garden beds were prepared were attacked by Brown Bandicoots in the dead of night. I gave up with the Marigolds, smoothing soil and replanting every morning. I just stood them up and left the holes. I got them to help turn the soil in a few other beds by a doing bit of digging, adding some compost and mulch.
Attack when I wasn’t looking was a rodent of some sort. It was bigger than a mouse and tail was shorter than a rat but much the same size. I put live traps out and caught three Black Rats who were relocated far from here. But this one didn’t go anywhere near the live trap but did sometimes step on a mouse trap, set it off but leave it without any signs.
The worse moment came when I noticed this strange liquid on the floor in the pantry. Looking further I found some cubes for making stock on the same shelf as a carton of UHT milk. Apparently stock cubes are salty and you need a drink. I found out that a rat like rodent cannot drink a litre of milk. Luckily it was on the second to shelf not the top shelf. It just disappeared and has never come back after I actually nearly caught it in the pantry. I shut the door behind me but somehow it squeezed under the door which has hardly any gap to the floor.
Any way lets get going
I hope you enjoy your March scrolling song
March bought some lovely foggy mornings
Earlier posts about Figbirds coming in at this time of year. This is the tree they come for which has so many figs
Wandering around town I was almost swooped by this White-headed Pigeon
The Whipbirds have been in the garden a few times in march. A bit of new plant growth sometimes means there are insects about to grab a quick snack
Also hoping for something to eat, a female Red-backed Wren or Jenny wren, hop around the ground looking for insects and grass seeds. A small flock come through the garden most mornings
A story with a happy ending. I was in the loungeroom when something banged in to window. It wasn’t a loud thump, so I thought a bird has made a good go at braking. When I had a look, I found this beautiful Red-browed Firetail Finch laying on the verandah couch. It was a bit dazed bit seemed OK. I put it in a box in filtered sunlight. I can back after a while to see if it was OK. It was sitting up and moved a little. I picked it up and as soon as I opened my hand, it flew off.
I hope to think that is one of these in the birdbath one hot afternoon. I just replaced the water that was quite warm with cool water. Not only were there Red-browed Firetail Finches but a Grey Fantail and Eastern Yellow Robin jumped in as well
I have a large Bearded Dragon who hangs around close by but never close to the house. I think there has been a bit of a meeting of Bearded Dragons As I have had this little one scuttling around the verandah for a few weeks. That’ll stop a few insects getting into the house.
One wet morning, I went to go to the rain gauge and looked in a gumboot and there it was, sleeping off a hard night. We both got a bit of a fright.
Isn’t this a weird one. I don’t know if it’s a wood borer or a wasp or who knows. That is one long ovipositor
So many dragonflies in the garden at the moment too. I should just take time and sit by the dam for a while to see how many and what sorts there are.
The Cassia tree which usually flowers in January didn’t come into full glory until the start of March. Because of this perhaps that is why there wasn’t as many Lemon Migrant Butterflies this year either. I am still trying to ID the native bee
There was an occasional Lemon Migrant Butterfly
There has been so many tiny Line Blue Butterflies. So small and so beautiful sitting on an Hibiscus flower bud
All of the Hibiscus have been flowering non-stop for weeks now. Isn’t this pink one just so pretty?
This Hibiscus was planted in the wrong place a long time ago but it still kept going, even being ignored during droughts, but this year it just has gone whoosh with so many of these delicately shaded flowers
Some of the Poinciana in town flowered so well
A Teddy Bear Bee enjoys an early morning buzz around the garden. Pentas are a firm favourite.
I love this sign at one of the pub in towns beer garden. I wonder if they are still called that now-a-days. They probably have some wanky name like outdoor recreation area now.
One night, sitting at my desk, from the corner of my eye I spotted something drop from the desk light to the to of the printer. By the time I went to have a closer look it has disappeared. It went up inside the light shade. It is quite hot in there as I had the light on for quite a while while I sitting here. Eventually the spider decided just to hang about.
Speaking of which, I can’t hang about. I should have finished this last night but weariness overtook me. I spent over two hours mowing down the back paddock and a bit of the house yard in the afternoon. So off you go and construct your Changing Season post.
As always…..did you have a favourite photo?
About The Changing Seasons
The Changing Seasons is a monthly project where bloggers around the world share their thoughts and feelings about the month just gone. We all approach this slightly differently, though generally with an emphasis on the photos we’ve taken during the month.
For many of us, looking back over these photos provides the structure and narrative of our post, so each month is different. Some focus on documenting the changes in a particular project — such as a garden, an art or craft project, or a photographic diary of a familiar landscape.
But in the end, it is your changing season, and you should approach it however works for you.
There are no fixed rules around post length or photo number — just a request that you respect your readers’ time and engagement.
Tags and ping-backs
Tag your photos with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them
Create a ping-back to Ju-Lyn at Touring My Backyard or this post, so that we can update it with links to all of yours.
Welcome to number fifteen in the series looking at what happens to the flowers in my garden.
Not as much of a range of the flowers life as I did forget to take some flowers and then it became rather hot or very wet so the flowers either dropped to the ground or didn’t seem to open before doing so.
Earlier I didn’t think that the tree was going to get leaves, which arrive prior to the flowers, and the flowers tried to get buds and open but the conditions this year just didn’t seem to be right for a good flowering.
The leaves appearing in the end of the branch. The red colouring early on in the growth is quite lovely
The early flower buds were a mix of colours which I hadn’t noticed in previous years. I have a couple of varieties and the red one looks so different. At first going though the photos I thought this was a red versions buds
As you can see the flowers opened to the white and a tinge of pink with a yellow centre
Frangipannis do like to have a gradual flower opening as well
When there is a lot of flowers the scent in the air in the evening is so good
The range of colours, however subtle, on the one tree is quite amazing
They do look quite different on some branches
Today was a rainy day and I wanted to get a photo of the last flowers. I also would have like to see insects on the flowers but hadn’t found any until this afternoon. Can you see the tiny Green Crab Spider sheltering from the rain under the lip of the flower?
It was so hard to get a good photo for you
While I was trying to photograph the spider, an Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly can drifting past. I wondered where it had gone.
The difference in the flowers on the one tree is quite amazing. These flowers have more pink on the petals that others.
The flowers are at their end. One dropped and has been caught on the leaves
The last flower with a dead flower and leftover stalks. I am not sure whether the last two what I think are buds will open
Todays Prompt: Sing Ragtag Daily Prompt Friday: Wonderment
A wonderment morning horizon and sun collide explosion colours ablaze
Quiet listen the gullies resound low at first Crack
I had never had Whipbirds at my place until after the fire that caused so much devastation across the whole Clarence Valley in 2019. My place was a little oasis where I fed and watered as many birds and animals who came to see what was on offer. I was hoping the Whipbirds would stay and they have. They even came into the garden after a while as they are shy birds and know how to hide.
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