exotic – Dutch goes the Photo!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Round Up 95

Beaty and exotics!

Welcome to the 95th round up of the Tuesday Photo Challenge! This week’s Exotic theme definitely received some extraordinary repsonses.

The turnout this week was amazing, as the exotic nature of the challenge stimulated lots of interesting posts and photography. Your choices ranged from locations, to birds and flowers; there were exotic people, animals and even and exotic phone book… All of your entries were a lot of fun to read and I want to thank you for all of your effort that you put into your posts!

You’ve created another fun week of posts!

Here’s another exotic denizen of our planet…

20130309-Giant-Swallowtail_MG_5457 — *Giant Swallowtail*

This beautiful butterfly is certainly among the most exotic creatures that I have photographed over the years. Not only is it beautful, but the fine coloring of the hairs is just stunning.

The following were this week’s participants in the challenge with links to their posts:

Danny James Photography started this week’s entries off with a stunning display by a peacock!
In Geriatri’X’ Fotogallery‘s post, we encounter beautiful images of exotic women in their finery!
Maria’s post in CitySonnet talks about the joy of cultivating an exotic plant, such as an orange tree!
This week’s contribution in theonlyD800inthehameau is truly fearsome, as I wouldn’t want to encounter such an exotic creature during my travels!
Nicole’s post in Une Photo, Un Poéme captures a beautiful exotic plant, which not only looks interesting, but is also a bit mysterious!
Xenia’s entry in whippetwisdom shows us that even a rather everyday object can be quite exotic to the right dog!
In a wonderful post in her blog, lifelessons, Judy not only shares a wonderful array of exotic flowers, but also an inspiring poem!
In Enatistic‘s post for this theme, we get to see a beautiful tree that certainly appears very exotic!
This week, pensivity101 tells us a rather interesting tale of a white peacock getting some competition…
With a wonderful photo, Fleeting Muse tells us of a stunning and exotic location that I’d certainly would like to visit.
By Sarah captured a truly exotic tableau, which made me laugh… what is your reaction to Sarah’s post?
Frank shares an exotic sunrise and great poem in his blog, Poetry, Short Prose and Walking.
This week, Photo Roberts Blog features great photographs of stunning, exotic flora.
In Chateaux des Fleurs, we are treated to a set of stunning birds, whose blue color is just beyond belief!
Candace goes very exotic in her post in Netdancer’s Musings, as we get the beauty of an unusual species…
Marie’s post in the New 3Rs: Retire, Recharge, Reconnect, goes to a very exotic locale: Sri Lanka!
Miriam’s post in her blog, The Shower of Blessings, tells the tale of some exotic Geese, who like to walk in a certain way!
In Ostendnomadography, we go to a rather interesting location: Playa Larga in Cuba, which is probably better know as the ‘Bay of Pigs’.
This week’s response by Land of Images has a beautiful photo of a crocus in bloom in one of my favorite colors!
The photo in Layue’s Everyday Photo Blog is just spectacular, I’m sure that you’ll agree!
The photography of the exotic flowers in this week’s entry from Cee’s Photography is simply outstanding! Go check it out!
Carol’s entry in her blog the Apples in my Orchard takes us to a location that is not only exotic, but truly inviting!
Miriam is dreaming of exotic islands in her post in Out an’ About, which the Maldives definitely are! She also has some exotic times and Nature to share!
Another great exotic entry is from iballrtw, who shares a wonderful photo of a Kndyan fire eater in Sri Lanka.
Brian’s post in his blog, Bushboy’s World, takes a very different look at our theme, and it certainly put a smile on my face!
In this week’s entry from ForgivingConnects, Debbie examines on of the exotic aspects of life in the inherent exquisite beauty that lies within forgiveness, which exists in each one of us!
Musin’ with Susan takes us to the exotic tastes and smells of a spice stall in the Souk in Old Jerusalem!
Pastries, Pics & Politics shared some wonderful photos of delicious looking cookies and scones, which feature kumquats; a rather exotic ingredient!

I hope that you enjoy these posts and let the authors know!

Dunvegan Castle Gardens

A puzzling example

As part of the WordPress Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge theme of Tour Guide, I thought it might be of interest to find something that ties back to this week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge of Exotic.

My favorite island of the Inner Hebrides is Skye, for its amazing, rugged landscape and mountainous range that are just a dream to photograph, as every different incident angle of light creates a completely new environment, sometimes even otherworldly.

One of the interesting places to visit on the isle of Skye is Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. Probably a fortified site from the earliest times, the castle was first built in the 13th century and developed piecemeal over the centuries. In the 19th century the whole was remodelled in a mock-medieval style. The castle is built on an elevated rock overlooking an inlet on the eastern shore of Loch Dunvegan, a sea loch.

20130528-Skye-Dunvegan-Castle-Tree_57A0922_3_4_Enhancer — *Monkey Puzzle Tree*

The castle sits on a massive site on Skye, much of which is cultivated into a stunning garden that includes many exotic species, such as the tree in this photo. The people standing next to it give you a sense of the scale of this wonderful tree.

If you’re ever visiting Skye, the castle and its grounds are well worth a look!

Have a wonderful day!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Exotic

Go wild into the exotic!

Welcome to Week 95 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge. Thanks to all of you wonderful participants for a fun week of entries for the theme of Decay!

For this week, I thought I’d go in a bit of a different direction, and also use a more recent photo for my inspiration. When I was in Ireland for work, I didn’t get much of a chance to wander about for some photography, but that didn’t mean that opportunity did not present itself. As I was standing in line at the cafeteria, I observed a pair of peacocks sitting in a tree. That’s what brought me to this week’s theme of Exotic.

Peacocks may be all over the world, but to me they still look exotic, particularly in a castle in Ireland! If you’re up for it, share something exotic in your neck of the woods, or from an exotic locale! I’m very much looking forward to your views of what is exotic.

Here are those peacocks…

2018-01-16-11.29.57-Malahide-Peacocks — *Peacocks in Malahide*

Malahide Castle is a lovely location to have meetings, particularly when I get to enjoy fantastic food in the cafeteria (it is a great place to eat!) and views, such as this!

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

I’m looking forward to your exotic fun!