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Walked round gardens.  Lots of warm sunshine in the morning.  Later we walked into town and had lunch at Trafalgar.  Walked around the St George and back.  It was quite cold, quite windy.  Feels like a change in the weather.

Sahara an’ a ra camules.  Apologies to Billy Connolly. Camels on their daily walk again.

These flowers seemed to be soaking up as much sun as possible in the morning. So were we.

It’s not really a jungle cat, but it did look a bit wild. Maybe just caught it on a bad day. It was one of the stray cats that frequented the Cat Hotel.

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Now that’s a sunrise worth getting up to photograph.

Sunbathing by the pool all day.  Italian dinner tonight with waiter service.  I had Pesto spaghetti and it was quite excellent.  Beijing acrobats at night.  Same act as last year.  Yawn.

Left

One of the long vertical windows at the hotel reflecting the palm trees. It looked as if the palm was trapped behind the glass.

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Right
I don’t know what plant this was, but it certainly glowed in the morning sunlight.

Hazel’s birthday!
Went down and sat by the pool. Took some photos of one of the hotel’s resident cats, Hazel, you’ll understand when I say that the one above looks like Mal.  The chunk out of his left ear tip is an indication that he’s been neutered, by the way.  Not that he’s been fighting.

Later the rain came on and it looked like it was going to stay on, so we went for a cup of juice in the pool bar – too early for alcohol! Sat on the other side of the pool bar for a while then went for a walk along the beach and had a paddle in the sea. They were draining the pool at the Atlantico centre for its annual clean. Walked back and had lunch. Passed Pepe on the way! Sat on the balcony after lunch, then went for a walk across the wilderness and back for 5.00pm tea/coffee and cakes. Scamp stayed for cake and coffee, I went for more photos of the wilderness. Saw the camels! Spotted and got a few shots of an avocet. Watched a girl surfing and getting wiped out by some big waves.

 

Camels making their daily trek from home to beach and back. I don’t think there were many customers for camel rides at this time of year.

 

Leaf caught in the thorny branches. I like the translucency of it.

November and December are the rainy months in Fuerteventura and the seeds start to germinate around then. I saw lots of pockets of wee sprouting seedlings all over this otherwise arid patch of ground.

The light at the end of the afternoon was quite amazing on this area of scrubland with the hills in the distance.

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I don’t know what this little Redshank was finding to eat in the outfall of a sewage station, but it was there every day.

Little Boxes.  They looked like they were all drawn in AutoCad and were copied all along the side of the hill.

The first of December already and another lovely day here. Sat by the pool and read most of the morning. Went in for lunch and the rain came on. Rain didn’t last, and after lunch we walked in to town ostensibly to get me a cap, but really to walk off lunch. Afterwards I went for a walk to get some photos. ‘S’ stayed by the pool and read. They were putting up decorations and a Christmas tree in reception. Seemed incongruous in this heat.

The white egret again concentrating on fishing off the rocks.

Three daft blokes on invalid scooters. They looked valid to me. Is that the opposite to “invalid”? The two at the front had dead batteries and the one at the back is pushing them.

One of the strongest colour contrasts is Red and Green. If they are placed next to one another, they intensify each other. I liked the pretty little flowers here.

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Apartments in the hotel in Caleta de Fuste.

Lovely warm day. Had breakfast and walked in to the town. Some changes like a walkway all the way into town. Got wet in a rain shower going in, but dried off when the sun came out. Walked to the harbour and back. Harbour has had a makeover since last year. Sat on the sunbeds all afternoon and went for a walk along the wilderness bit beside the hotel later. Saw a curlew and a snowy egret.
Danced salsa and bachata to girl singer. German who was also dancing complemented us on our dancing!

This is a partly man-made archipelago.  A great subject for sky pictures. I liked the little light area around cafe.

This is the view behind the hotel. Quite a barren landscape, but there were beautiful sunsets too.

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I followed this snowy egret (?) on many afternoons, but never quite got that perfect shot.

Again, quite barren, but also quite scenic. A favourite place for surfing.

40 min delay leaving dull Glasgow.
Good flight but the final leg was a bit bouncy. Took ages to get out of the airport and on to the hotel.
Weather was a bit rainy at times but very windy.
Hotel itself was exactly the same as the sister hotel we were in last year. Big comfortable bed in a good 5th floor room with sea view and balcony of course. Food excellent and so was the first night entertainment. Pepe, so ‘S’ was in her element. Next bit was a reptile show then Bubbles the Clown. Excellent fun.

We got to Fuerteventura to find the previous resident was perched on the balcony.

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A great idea we had seen before on the island. Seemed well populated with cats.

An uninspiring day, brightened by food again!  Lunch at the Cotton House.

You can tell it’s been a dull, unphotographable day when it’s a picture of a flower that makes the 365.

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Waited in this morning and lo and behold the parcel did arrive!  Drove in to Glasgow to see some of Wil Freeborn’s pics hanging in the Glad Cafe.  Really pleased I went because the burger and coffee in the cafe were excellent.  Paintings were good too.  Worth the trip into the hinterland of Queen’s Park.

Then it was back into dull, dreary Glasgow City Centre.  Full of women (Men do Christmas shopping on the 24th Dec after being in the pub all afternoon) buying everything in creation to make Christmas the jolly, merry, happy time we know it isn’t.

Ask yourself, when do we use the words “Merry” and “Jolly” other than at Christmas?

Frosty undergoing official testing before being pronounced biologically clean.

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I waited in all day for a parcel to be delivered by Royal Mail. It turned out to be a Royal PITA. Of course, it didn’t come. 4 hours wasted.

Later in the afternoon I did get out for some photos. Weather was pretty dull, so I had to do some ‘shopping on this one to inject some colour.
Basically, I did almost no levels adjustments in LR, but selected it and a bright coloured leaf pic and exported them as layers to Photoshop. Placed the leaf layer on the top and used gaussian blur to blend all its colours together. Changed the blending mode to Overlay and reduced the opacity a bit and got the image you see here.
The method works best with a strong main subject.

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I really must get into a habit of getting up earlier, or setting the alarm at least for about 8.00am.  Another lazy day after I’d got the washing done and tomorrow’s dinner sorted out.  Spent the afternoon recording some music for S.  Did manage an hour or so across at St Mo’s and that’s where todays shots came from.

I like the placement of the seat on the little hill with the grass and bare trees behind. I preferred to keep it simple and rely on the compo rather than colour.

Looking very delicate, these waterdroplets caught my eye.

 

Mushrooms, or is it toadstools? I must learn the difference one of these days. Lots of them about this autumn. Must be something to do with the warm weather that is now leaving us to the cold of winter.
Is it my imagination, or does it look like the one at the back is attempting to eat the foreground one?

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