Been stuck indoors a lot lately but amused myself with setting up some more still life subjects. The trug and especially the brown jug have been favourites of mine from way back – I like the ‘rustic’ look and feel of them.

It seems that there are people out there who haven’t heard of, or known about ‘trugs’.  I believe they are unique to Sussex ? so generally called ‘Sussex trugs'[obviously Lol]  I love the shape and sturdiness of them.  This one is a mini size, but the full-size ones can be really quite large. Very useful too. The only drawback is that they can also be expensive – that must have been why I settled for a mini one at the time!  But I’m glad I did because it’s ideal for a table-top still life set-up.

This second shot, although much the same, has a nice glow from the orange onto the nut which I hadn’t noticed when I was actually taking the photograph. The not-so-good point is that the handle is full on and sort of blocking entry into the picture.

It happens to be my birthday today and my lovely daughter took me out on HER birthday a few days ago and bought me this beautiful orchid. I complemented it by buying myself the mini one. Together with the oriental gentleman taking tea, I thought they would make a nice harmonious still life group, so out came the camera. I thought the colours went well together and added a border to finish it off.

Not sure that this one completely ‘worked’ but I cut out the tall orchid [ not because I didn’t like it but wanted to experiment a bit] and made a more compact group.  It meant using my Paintshop Pro software to crop out the other orchid and erase the stalks and sticks etc and boy – did that take a long time and a lot of doing! Anyway – I hope my perseverance was worth it … not sure about the two large leaves though – a bit like bunny rabbit ears – but I tried to make them less obtrusive by fading and softening somewhat. The thing is, you can’t overdo these things because it can end up looking too artificial.

The main thing is that I had a lot of fun doing it and I’m always learning new things, which is a good thing at my age!

Please click the ‘like’ button if you feel so inclined -[ just to let me know you’re there]  and as always, constructive comments and suggestions are very welcome ….  see you soon –   Eileen