Images: Flowers at Ightham Mote

I know that my readers come here for recipes and foodie photos and this week I have got quite a few blog ideas in my head. Birthday’s coming up and I have a couple of cakes and recipes lined up for later on. So there will be such a post here very very soon. However the past few weeks have been all about bluebells, flowers, cake and coffee, and we’ve been visiting a few National Trust places to get our fill! I couldn’t just let the whole thing pass by without a special mention. I know you will forgive me for that.

Apparently bluebell season is already on it’s way out. The ones in our front garden are still there, looking beautiful of course. My neighbour says it’s like a little fairy corner. So *so* pretty that you could just stare at them all day.

So before all the foodie stuff comes your way, here are some of the few decent photos I took during our visit to Ightham Mote. There were a lot of not-so-decent-ones which is to be expected from yours truly. There were some serious disasters which I’d rather lock out of my mind right now, I tell ya! I’m quite pleased with these though, especially because I got to use my macro lens along the way.

I didn’t need one for the carpet of bluebells though. I don’t think the photo shows the sheer number of the little violet dots on the ground; words like ‘many’, ‘countless’ or ‘several’ don’t even begin to describe what we saw. I edited this shot a little by increasing the contrast to bring out the intensity of the colours but it needed nothing else done. I don’t like to process my photos too much, and I do it only when it’s really necessary. At least I don’t feel too guilty about it these days. Even the best people out there do it, and some tweaking makes a better result sometimes. But I’m no expert so I will stop at that.

One of the things I love are apple blossoms, and I’m lucky in that wherever you go around here (as in the UK) you will find plenty.  I am totally charmed by them and I try to capture their beauty, although I rarely succeed. I love their white and pastel pink petals. Getting the focus right was hard though – all the individual flowers in this bunch were absolutely gorgeous.

I still like my baby fixed lens – I just love it, and it’s handy whenever I take a food photo up close. The less I faff with switching lenses, the less I carry, which in turn makes me feel lighter. J always tells me that the whole point of having an SLR is to use different lenses and to experiment. I concur, except that I don’t like carrying stuff in the first place. I don’t even like carrying a handbag, let alone a sack full of heavy equipment. In fact I don’t need to – J carries everything we need. He doesn’t mind, bless.

It was pretty quiet when we walked through Scathes Wood, so we had loads of good spots from where to take some shots. There were a few people around though and a couple of them stopped next to us for a chat. Every one of them was there for the bluebells, and I don’t blame them.

For a change, I think I might be off to London tomorrow for a treat. Will take my camera with me for practice.

Rob.

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