Enough of this greyness. Let there be blues! And greens! And a flower! All happily grabbing a dose of afternoon sunshine on the comfort of our window sill. Destined to be habaneros, if all grows as it should.
Dead flower masquerding as frail, semi-transparent moths? Or are the moths getting together for purposes of their own, and disguising their negotiations by masquerading as a flower? Either way, winter comes.
Despite the lack of encouraging conditions, some of the foliage is giving it a go. It can’t be easy under the monsoon, probably our equivalent of crawling out from under the duvet at 6.30am in February. Hence the ragged look of this bloom.
These seeds are ready to fly; the next windy day, they’ll be gone. You have to admire the simple efficiency of the pattern. The seeds remain individual and can all escape, but no space is wasted, no more could be fitted on. Like so many other things in nature, the perfect match of form and function.
This tulip is open and ready for business. Come and get it with those hairy stamens right now baby. Or so to speak.
With the extinction of pollinating insects being one of the more plausible end-of-the-world scenarios doing the rounds, it’s gratifying that this one has survived the cold snap and sees in our winter-flowering heather some pleasant sustenance. I like how it looks as if its little eyes are closed, though of course that’s not how insect eyes work. Gives it a look of contentment though.
Enough of this winter, say I! I don’t see this as a winter shot. This is the first picture of spring. If we all exert our will on the weather surely we can psychically change it. Worth a try surely.
I’m leaving the UK tomorrow, I guess it is possible there could be a shot from Manchester airport (although I’m sat there as I type this, and nothing is inspiring me thus far), but more likely is that tomorrow will see the first non-UK shot since the one in Sheremetyevo airport on 25th October (day 2,253), a run of 129 days and the second-longest such run since I started on this blog. Let’s travel, though I’m not heading anywhere warmer…
Another one of these time-of-year things, annual photographic events — you’ve seen this flower (wood cranesbill) before, not to mention insects plunging themselves within, to extract the bounty.
The garden is a riot of vegetation; only most of it is growing in places it shouldn’t, the consequence of a month of neglect. A weekend of agricultural labour looms. Attractive as it is this unidentified plant will be categorised as weed; its days are numbered.
Definitely the season for this flower, as I pictured it almost exactly two years ago to the day — 21/6/14 — only then initially misidentified it as violet. In fact it is wood cranesbill, Geranium sylvaticum, and very cute it is too, as the bees agree.
