Day 63 - Dining Table (Before & After)

A job I've been putting off, somewhat, for several weeks is sorting through the piles of paperwork, magazines, gardening stuff and assorted junk that had accumulated on our dining table. So this is how said table was looking a few days ago ...

And, after a few days of concentrated effort (in several short bursts!), this is our table reclaimed! One of the concertina files in the photo above has been thrown away as it was broken, but the other is now beautifully labelled and filled with all our organised paperwork!

Now we can have dinner at the table again!

Day 62 - Magnolia Stellata

Here is a close-up of our beautiful magnolia tree, just before it loses all its blooms! It's been a gorgeous day here, today ... hence the lovely blue sky!

Here is another, where I managed to catch a nearby bee, too ... look at those wings go!!!

And finally, the whole tree ... looking a picture in the late afternoon sun.

Day 61 - High Street Jewellers

Ok, so I actually took this photo a few days ago, while buying my granddaughter a watch for her 18th birthday ... but as I've been doing a bit of a "mini-series" about our High Street shops, I didn't want to miss posting this one.

Up until a year or 18 months ago, this was a very old-fashioned jewellers, filled with a huge wooden counter and loads of glass cabinets ... there was very little room left for customers! Although the old romantic in me mourns the loss of another traditional shop, this new light and airy interior is probably more inviting and certainly gives more space and access to those wishing to browse.

They also do a range of perfumes and other little bits and pieces, as shown here:

Day 60 - Pink Seagull

This week's Photo Challenge theme was "Surprise Us", meaning do something different to your usual style (not sure I have one!!) and/or do something surprising and unusual.

I think this fits both suggestions, in a way, because it is quite an unusual finish (for a seagull, anyway!) and also because I don't normally do much messing around with photos after I've taken them ... not because I don't "approve" of it, and certainly not because I think my photos are perfect as they are (LOL!!) ... just because I don't usually bother, probably through laziness as much as anything!

Anyway, here it is:

Day 59 - Duck!!

Last year, a female mallard visited us twice, hatching a total of 30 ducklings (and causing us to lose all our carp, but that was partly our fault for feeding them). It would seem that either she has returned, with her partner, or some of her grown-up ducklings have returned ... as we now have a female and a male hanging around our pond and garden! Here is handsome Mr Duck, in all his glory: