On the road again

I just love the scenery on the way home from Natal to Johannesburg along the N3, especially going through the hills of Natal to the flat scenery in the Freestate.  I'm getting quite good at taking photos from the car while it's moving too!

This shot is my favourite, I just love all the brown wintery colours at this time of the year...

Just before Harrismith

Farm in the Freestate

And of course, I just have to find ruins to take photos of!

Weekly Winners: 13 July - 19 July

Pink flowers in the rockery

In pieces

Dove and her chick nesting in an aloe tree

And then yesterday a group of us had lunch to celebate Fiona's birthday, and here are my favourites...

Doing lunch

Sue

Josh

Looking lonely

Hanging out

In the playhouse

Strike a pose

Little shop

Shopfront

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Weekly Winners: 15 June - 21 June

It's been easier this week for me to find some weekly winners, because I kept some shots specially for this post :).
I've had a better photo week this week (apart from getting quite good results at Camera /Photo club on Wednesday), and I've graduated to using the manual/creative modes on the camera - I still have a lot to learn about exposure, aperture etc as I had to adjust most of them in Photoshop! Talking of which, I think I should get proper PS instead of Elements, I'm dying to use actions.

We went to Parys last Sunday, and I again took some photos from the moving car :)

Burnt


Abandoned


Connor discovered the windmill in MIL's garden


Hairy cactus


Purple flowering succulent
(I have no idea what the name of the plant is)

Pineapple Lily

I had to take a few days off work this week because I had no-one to look after the kids, and I took them to a tea garden to play on the one afternoon (There are more photos here).

Horny goat


Risky play


Pampas at sunset

And I can't resist showing you these too. Connor picked a flower for me yesterday, but by the time I got it, it was all mangled... and this is why...

Daydreaming


Study of a blue flower


Hmmm, smells nice

OK, I think I've shown you enough now ;)

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Freestate scenery

We drove to Parys today to visit my mother-in-law. Today I decided to just take photos of the scenery. Even though the Freestate is mostly flat (in fact very flat), it looks quite pretty especially at this time of the year when it's green.

All these photos were taken on the main road to Parys (R59)

I love this part of the trip, the rolling hills in this area are just so pretty, even in the dead of winter.

I had to include a rural ruin for the day too ;).

To Parys and back...

We went to Parys today to visit MIL (Lance's mom for those who don't understand the abbreviation), so of course I took my trusty camera. These photos were taken from the moving car.

Taken on the Freestate side of the Vaal River, close to Parys.

A street sign in Parys. It's made out of an old car registration plate, and has been painted by a resident.

My rural ruins of the day. The first one is close to Parys, and the other closer to Jo'burg.

Rural Ruin no 2

We went to visit MIL in Parys today. This ruin is one of the many deserted farm houses on the side of the highway (I took the pic from the moving car).
This is typical of deserted houses in South Africa - all the possible building materials that can be used again are removed from the houses, leaving very stark ruins.

My first "rural ruin"

I'm strangely excited about this photo. LOL!
I joined a LJ community a few months ago called rural_ruins and everyone posts photos of, well, ruins. I've never had anything to post on the site before. YAY! Hopefully it qualifies.

This building is on the farm that Bradley rides at. It apparently used to be the owners playhouse when she was little. The stairs are even gone now (thankfully or else the kids would be trying to climb in). It now houses a water tank.