Friday 2 July 2010

a new affair of the heart.....?


A couple of weeks ago, I posted a comment on Flighty's Plot,   in which I said that I wasn't a great fan of roses.  

That seems to have made fate or karma or the Great Rose God smile in a mischievous sort of way.  Not long afterwards, we went away for the weekend and stumbled on a small rose garden.  I can't remember exactly how many photographs I took there, but it was a clatter (Northern Irish for more than a few and less than loads).  



I realise now that I have never really appreciated the variety of shapes, colours and general beauty that roses can assume, but my education has started.  The collage shows a few of the roses on display - two of the shots have been processed (bottom left corner and top right corner). 

If anyone can help out with the varieties here, I'd be very grateful.  I have the RHS Encyclopedia, but there are so many variations it's difficult to identify them when you're starting from scratch.

Now, the image at the start of the post!  This is a piece of public art in Coleraine.  It stands at a waterbus stop on the River Bann, on which Coleraine is built. 



It's quite a striking work and I think it's a dragonfly, which may be a reference to the river.  Frustratingly, I haven't been able to track down any reference to it on the Coleraine Council website or public art in Northern Ireland websites and so I have no idea who created it or when it was set up.  It looks to me as if it may be made from recycled materials, but that may not be the case.  Anyhow, I'll keep trying and may end up contacting the council to try to get some info.  It actually looks a little bit confused to me, as if it's not sure how it ended up on the pole or what to do now!

I realised that with one thing and another, Creativity Boot Camp had come to an end all of a sudden.  We had exam fever in our house for a while there, with AS levels going on, so I fell a little behind with some of the prompts.  I still have one more to do, but here are the last few to complete all the images.

Full bodied - this is my favourite jug, from the Iveagh Pottery in Co. Kerry.  I LOVE the shape and the colours.


Smooth - the first image for this was hurried and also betrayed the fact that I was thinking about food



The second image for smooth was much more refined!!



The final prompt was Smile and I'm afraid that things became a little silly



The only one that's left is Hush; I intend to post an image for that, but am not hushed at all at the minute and so will wait a little before deciding what it's going to be.

The Boot Camp was fantastic - I felt that it gave the opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and start to do things differently to the way I had been used to.  I'm continuing with Sunday Creative, which will be a little more leisurely.


5 comments:

  1. I do appreciate that some people don't like roses, but as the saying goes...roses grow on you! Sorry but I'm rubbish at identifying varieties but will ask a couple of more knowledgable folks.
    I like that 'dragonfly', just how big is it?
    Nice post and photos! Flighty xx

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  2. Really great photos, love the flowers and stone ones.

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  3. Flighty, hmmm wil I give my age away if I admit to remembering Norman Vaughan saying exactly that :D

    The dragonfly is great. The pole it's on is a proper lamp-post and the dragonfly is probably about 12 feet long - it's quite substantial!

    Anesha - thanks so much for visiting and for your comment. I've had a quick visit to your blog and love your cards - I'm looking forward to spending more time there.

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  4. I love your photos! The SMILE is very funny, and the SMOOTH I caught myself reaching out to touch the screen! I think you captured the texture of those stones very accurately!
    As to the roses, the photos are just lovely- and I havn't a clue what any of them are!! But I think for us perhaps we don't appreciate roses so much becuase we so often see the uber-cultivated modren sorts, whereas its the old ramblers and overblown flowers who are the real beauties. Just a thought?

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  5. Heckety, I think you're absolutely right regarding the roses - I hadn't thought of that! The less regimented varieties and wild roses are really lovely. Thanks for your very kind comments about the photographs - I appreciate them :)

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