Black & White photo #11: An Elephant at the Tower

This week's photo was taken at the Tower of London before my spell there as a London Ambassador during London 2012. As part of the training provided we spent some time in the Tower of London experiencing it as a visitor - there's no better way to learn about a place, as from the inside. 

This elephant sculpture looked great, if you look closely you can see the mesh it's made of.  There were also monkeys on the roof which were also pretty realistic, you definitely needed to look twice!

I think this works well in black and white with the texture of the wall, arch and staircase as well as the main subject of the shot. 

I'm linking up with Charly over at PODCast where there'll be plenty more black and white photos so pop over there and take a look. 

Love this #44: Hanging Lavender sachets

I know it's not the right time of year to harvest lavender flowers from your garden but... these lavender sachets are so gorgeous and useful I wanted to share them now.

I don't have any lavender that I can use for these so I think I might be visiting Norfolk Lavender next time I'm up that way and buy some lavender just so I can make these so I have something as pretty as these to hang in my new wardrobes.

I'll be on the lookout too for pretty fabric too (although I suspect I already have some and I might just have a look at what material Mum might have...)

Oh and no, I've not ordered the new wardrobes yet but with the decorators starting next Monday, it won't be long.  I hope.  Imagine proper wardrobes.  For all our clothes.  In our bedroom, how exciting!  

Anyway back to the lavender sachets...

I saw these on a French blog  - La vie est belle - which I dip in and out of as my French isn't that good! However with the pictures in the pdf tutorial I think I could give these a go (assuming I had some lavender).  

Here's the link to the tutorial.

Growing some lavender of my own

I'm working on the lavender for my garden too. I've taken lots of cuttings of a rather leggy plant we had that was way past its best.

And they're doing well so far - in as much as they haven't died...

And yes, I know there's a long way to go!!

Black & White photo #10: A Boat Seat

We're back from a week in Cornwall and I literally have hundreds of photos to wade through, so it's appropriate that I'm sharing a boat this week!  This one though has been upturned and transformed into a boat seat and can be found in Glendurgan Gardens.

It's a fab place to while away some time in the garden - although it is in demand for photos - and it looks just as good in black and white as it does in real life.  And I think the ferns are doing a great job emulating waves...

I hope to share more from our trip soon, but until then I'm linking this photo with Charly's black and white photo project over on PODCast where you'll find more black and white shots.