Something a Bit Different

I had intended to take a photo of something meaningful today but somehow the inspiration deserted me.

So I've tried something a bit different. The base photo is of a carving of a dove on the font at St Botolph's Church in Shepshed, where Basil and I went for coffee morning. The dove is meant to represent the Holy Spirit descending from heaven. Heaven knows, I could do with a touch of spirit!

But it looked a bit plain. Walking home with Basil, I noticed a lovely red opium poppy with 'parrot' shape petals. So I've stuck that on the top and blended the photos, using a mask to conceal what I don't want to show of the poppy photo.

Still not satisfactory. Thought I'd try a touch of Liquify on the poppy, then Gaussian Blur on both the dove and the poppy. Duplicate the layers, combine the copied layers and apply an oil paint filter in Photoshop CC. I suppose you could say that the red petals of the poppy represent the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Anyway, this is today's effort.

I suppose you may want to hear about the cats. 

They finally came back at 10 pm last night, after I'd been out to clack their food trays together and left some food out for them. At 9.30, the food remained uneaten, but at 10 pm when Len returned from cricket meeting, he went into the conservatory and noticed the food trays were empty. The little beggars had snuck in and eaten it while I was doing something else.

Len spotted them over the fence and enticed them by clacking the tins once more. They came willingly into the conservatory where they were confined to barracks for the remainder of their stay. I served them yet more food.

Today, they have been delivered back to the bosoms of George and Kat, where they made themselves completely at home and carried on as usual.

It was good to see the newly weds. We stayed to watch a slideshow of their honeymoon photos. They had thoroughly enjoyed the holiday and done lots of things, including going to the Dubai Aquarium and to the top of Burj Khalifa from where Kat had taken numerous shots of Dubai. George really does not like heights so it was amazing that he had got to the top. He didn't go near the windows though.

We have our conservatory back and Basil is master of the house once more. Wimbledon is on the telly.