Catching up - Days 19 - 22

The last few days have gone from being quite hectic (in work) to very lazy (over the weekend).  We spent some time in Co. Down over the weekend, at Delamont Country Park and from there it's only a short drive to Castle Ward, which is where we spent last Saturday (I'll be posting some of the photographs from there on my other blog here).

Now, which number are we at...?  

On Thursday evening the sun was beautiful and the reflections on the telephone wires were very pretty; on the coiled wire it looked as if there were droplets all the way along.  I've used a process on this from picnik called orton-ish, which creates an effect named for Michael Orton. It's a kind of glowy, saturated effect which is very dreamy.

 
# 19/365

On Friday I was really pleased to see that I had another poppy in amongst the Forget me nots, so this is a kind of deja vu because there was a poppy on Day 4.  Still pink...

# 20/365

We visited Castle Ward on Saturday and had a great time, albeit that the weather wasn't great.  The grounds are beautiful though LARGE (there's a 14 mile walk that you can do, and NO, before you ask, we didn't!), and the house is just lovely, with so many quirky and eccentric qualities. 

One of the features of the grounds is a Sunken Garden, which has a surrounding wall.  The wall and the four sets of steps down into the garden are time-worn and made from absolutely gorgeous brickwork, mellowed and colourful.  I couldn't resist taking a photograph of one set of steps.

# 21/365 steps back in time

Just to give an idea of the elegance and beauty of the sunken garden, this is a photograph from the terrace above it

After spending all day in Castle Ward on Saturday, we were very lazy on Sunday and spent the morning reading, chatting, dozing, not moving and so the photograph for Sunday is one that I took from my chair, of Mr Pugh's recently vacated chair opposite.  In my defense, the colours and shapes were strong, with a nice abstract design to them, but still......truthfully, if I had to move, I didn't photograph it!

# 22/365 -  lazy Sunday