The last few days, we’ve had enough rain to kickstart the process of re-greening the North of England’s meadows, and I started to feel a little celebration of sunshine might not go amiss. Isn’t that the way it always is?
My first is a decidedly strange (for me) shot of roses growing overhead – so high, they ruled out the little dead-heading needed for a conventional shot. At the time I took it, I was half-imagining some form of caption in the top left: a concise one like Dog Days or Wine & Roses. As the end result captures more of their spirit than I expected, I’m leaving it alone. For now.
The second is pure essence of flower blur: spires seen against thistle-type flowers and a leafy lime green background .
If I was challenged to produce a flower picture that seemed to represent all the seasons in just one shot, this would be it. I wasn’t trying to be arty when I took it – nature forced my hand. One of the florets is almost in focus, but blurriness definitely wins out. As a picture of a plant, it doesn’t quite work but the rich colours are effective, the flowers seem joyful and I like the way the interplay of light and shade draws the eye around the picture.
Finally, a hooded-style yellow poppy (Meconopsis napaulensis yellow form) in a woodland garden. This is another weird shot that I can’t help liking: an illuminated manuscript of plants. The main flower was the intended subject, but the shadows on the hosta leaf, the nodding little novice poppy in the bottom right, the hosta flowers, turned blue by some trick of the light and even those pinkish blurs all demand attention.
None of these pictures did what I was intending, but they all succeeded in capturing an atmosphere I was barely aware of when the whole scene was before me.
Susan Rushton 
Lovely photos, lovely description.
Thanks, Carol.
All very lovely. Didn’t take long for the grass to green up, but I wouldn’t mind some sunshine now! We seem to have tipped right into autumn already.
It’s amazing how quickly the grass turns lush and green. I’d love to see another satellite image showing what the UK looks like now. The reservoirs won’t be as fast to fill though.
True, but I was under the impression that the reservoirs were actually higher than at this time last year.
I don’t think ours are in the NW. We always seem to be the first threatened with hosepipe bans, which seems ironic – Morecambe and Wise did not sing Bring Me Sunshine for nothing!
Some water companies are not so good at management 😦
Ah, ‘the artist’s intention’: sometimes the best art is something we never intended to do at all. I like them all, but the overhead roses and the light through the yellow poppy stand out for me. I love the words ‘novice poppy’ too.
The hooded effect of the poppy’s petals made me think of monks and I pushed the limits of the idea in the description.
Monks: makes me think of the canonical hours. I always marvel how one image (verbal or visual) takes us into another. We have an intruder in our garden: an enormous hollyhock. I don’t know where it came from. Verbally and visually, it is influencing me and taking me in!
Love them all, but especially the yellow poppy!
Its petals seem perfectly designed to catch the sun.
🙂 Oh my goodness. Those flowers look beautiful in the sun!
They do seem to be lapping up the sun 🙂
Beautiful flowers all of them, but I particularly like the salvia with the eryngium in the background- two plants I’m very fond of. The sun is highlighting the salvia flowers so prettily.
I sometimes wish my iPhone would give me a shallower depth of field, but in a border like that, a bit more depth comes in handy.
A lovely summer celebration!
We wove around some of your country lanes on the way to The Forbidden Kingdom a few days ago. It was very scenic, but wondering what would be around the next bend on the lanes was almost scarier than The Forbidden Kingdom!
Hope you had fun, and enjoyed being in touch with your Inner Child!
It’s all in the lighting. It always is.
That’s true. Flat, even light is easier, but intense light and shade is often more fun.
I’ve never seen a yellow poppy! We’ve been in a drought too, most of July there was no rain at all. Now it’s been raining a little and some things are greening up…the weeds are catching up in my garden too! Darn!
Yellow Welsh poppies (Meconopsis cambrica) are not uncommon here – those ones are smaller and a brighter yellow. These large creamy yellow ones are much less common – you have to know where & when to look to catch one.
Yellow poppies, yellow clematis, yellow roses, yellow peonies, yellow magnolias — they all seem more special because they are rarely seen in the gardens around here.
Good point – I’m always excited to see a yellow magnolia or a yellow poppy.
Beautiful photos, as always!! I love the first one with the roses… Those tones and the light are super elegant!
I’m glad you liked it. I didn’t really expect the shot to work but took it anyway. 🙂
Wonderful photos! I find your wording to be beautiful as well as helpful to a novice photographer like myself.
Thanks for your kind words, Jodie.