An Exciting Trailer plus Farewell Begonia?

Some exciting stuff recently arrived in the post, in the big navy envelope you can see at the back.

It's our "Official Invitation" to the Queensferry Crossing Experience on which we won a free place in the online draw. We were among the lucky 50,000 out of over 226,000! It included a lanyard, and an ID card with a photo on the other side. Security will be very strict indeed, of course.

Ba wanted to wear the lanyard as well. [Click the photos to see them bigger, won't you.]

There's a website about this beautiful bridge online here. There are also lots of videos about its construction on Youtube.

The inside of the invitation was a wonderful cut-out design.

It was hard to get the details clear in a bright image - but see the next photo in the composite Alice created. By making it a bit darker, the details stand out more.

We're looking forward to our actual walk across in September, and hope it doesn't rain on the day, so Alice can take lots of photos.

Watch this space!

Here's a photo (by Wave102) of all three bridges, including the rail bridge and the troubled Forth Road Bridge, with the new one nearest to us, taken when it was almost complete.

The Begonia
We think our amazing begonia (see our previous post below) is reaching the end of its flowering life. And maybe we've reached the end of your interest as well . . . 

A couple of weeks later and some flowers, plus a leaf or two, had died and fallen off, though the plant was still producing new blossoms. But it was drooping rather more, again, and it was hard to view it from a comfortable position! So Alice tied it up a bit more still and shunted the geraniums round, so then there was room for us to admire it at close quarters. [Click, please.]

The flower we tried to press didn't come out very well, as it got folded over with the paper by mistake. Ba was most upset. So Alice actually cut off another bloom before it dropped (while Ba winced) and has set the process going again. Fingers crossed. We'll let you know.

Beautiful Begonia

Ba has been nagging Alice to make a blog post about her beautiful Begonia. Sorry, she didn't mean the singer, though that lady does have a beautiful voice. You can listen on her Soundcloud account.

Alice replied that although Ba loves it dearly, it's not really Ba's begonia, for she has been the one who climbs up beside the draining board (very cautiously, of course, so as not to fall off) and waters it, and provides it with care. Moreover, she has been busy, and is tired, and wonders what she could possibly say about several photos of the same plant, albeit taken at different dates.

So, before they fell out over it, I said, "Why not put a few of them together to fill the page! Like before." Fiddling about with images (I mean being creative, of course) usually cheers her up.

The three above were all taken in June, about a week apart. Once it got going, there was no stopping this begonia producing more buds and flowers - though the leaves did progressively get a bit tatty, as you can see. [ Do click on these composites, to get the full picture. ]

Eventually the main stalk got so long and heavy I was afraid it would pull the whole caboodle down. So Alice carefully tied it up. Then in July we found it's got a baby! The flower beside Ba is one that fell off, which quite upset her, but we're trying to press and preserve it. Just how much the little one will grow, we'll have to wait and see: it was already taller by August.

We'll finish this very special post with Alice's favourite pose of Ba among the flowers. And I hope you noticed she gave the photos a tasteful yellow border, to match the beautiful blooms.