Sometimes it's easy to forget that 'small is beautiful'. Also, how much of that beauty can be found very close to home. There may be a whole wide world out there, but that world begins as soon as we step out of our own back (or front) door.
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We have had plenty of sunny days this past April; however quite often the warm sun was tempered by a fresh wind. But we have also had some almost summer-like days; indeed, on one day quite early in the month the temperature reached 26 degrees in London and that IS summer weather.
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Sri Lanka’s national flower is the blue waterlily. We saw these beautiful flowers everywhere, not just growing in lakes but also as offerings in Buddhist shrines in particular. This flower is considered a symbol of truth, purity and discipline.
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In England we have this saying about the weather in March and years ago most of us would have recognised it as pretty accurate. But these days the weather is much less predictable it seems. This year March came in like a lamb, turned lion-like, then back to lamb for a short spell before becoming very fiercely lion until the very last day when the lamb reappeared!
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In a Northern Hemisphere winter, seeing flowers can always lift the spirits. Whether it’s a rare winter-blooming plant in a garden, a vase in the home or photos from past summer or journeys, the sight is always a welcome one.
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Photography can be a tricky medium. To all intents and purposes, it appears to provide a faithful representation of a true scene. But ever since it was first invented photographers have found ways to fool the viewer. Creating double exposures in the darkroom, adding details by hand or removing them …
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The soft delicacy of flower petals can give them an ethereal, dreamlike quality. And a bit of creative photo editing can enhance that impression, A blurred background, combined with soft focus, can make the flowers seem to float in a hazy, dreamy space.
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We have had plenty of warm September sun this year, but also some chillier days, reminding us that winter isn’t too far away. By the end of the month it was looking, and feeling, quite autumnal. We were home for much of the month but did make our usual anniversary visit to Paris near the start.
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Having spent the first half of August on an expedition cruise in Svalbard, I spent much of the second half wanting to return! But any return will have to wait, and meanwhile within a week of getting home we were off again, on our annual trip to Yorkshire.
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Our June heatwaves stretched into the first half of July before more normal London summer weather returned: warm but not hot, and with the odd day of rain. But whatever the weather, we found plenty of opportunities to get out and about. Although we didn’t leave London during this particular month.
