flowers

Growing

/ Su Leslie / 43 Comments
Rosemary flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2020

A week of glorious sunshine has delivered lots of new growth and flowering in my garden. It’s especially exciting to see the plum blossom, but I think the bees are happiest amongst the borage flowers. You’ll have to take my word for that now — I was up too early to catch any in action.

Blue borage buds. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Rosemary flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Rosemary flowers. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Blue borage. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Plum blossom. Image: Su Leslie 2020
Calendula flower. Image; Su Leslie

This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge | Pick a Word offered Growing (amongst others). I thought I was done yesterday with Comfortable — but how could I resist flower photos.

And it’s Friday.

#fridayflowers

A single flower

/ Su Leslie / 37 Comments

frosted flowers greenhithe may 20192

Image: Su Leslie 2019

This week I have definitely spent more time baking than taking photographs, and I did toy with the idea of slightly altering this post to Friday Flours; wholemeal, white baker’s, spelt, rye, buckwheat — perhaps rice and coconut flours?

But I’ll spare you my attempt at humour and instead offer some images from the archive. Since this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge is to show one single flower — that’s what I’ve done. Or at least a bunch of shots of solitary flowers.

Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie
Pink camellia. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Image: Su Leslie
Image: Su Leslie

 

 

Friday flowers

/ Su Leslie / 68 Comments
img_7179 Image: Su Leslie 2020

It hasn’t been a great week, one way or another.

I’ve broken a tooth; inflicted a ridiculously painful-for-its-size cut on my finger tip; been for a mammogram (routine but always stressful); had a massive wasps’ nest removed from the ceiling cavity directly above where I sleep, and wasted far too much time trying to buy a tripod in camera shops that seem to employ the sort of men (where are the women in camera shops?) who should only exist in fiction (I’m thinking here of  “Hi-honey-I’m-home” 1950s sitcoms).

Worst of all; I feel bad for feeling bad. Apart from the broken tooth — and the possibilities inherent in the mammogram — it’s all pretty minor stuff. In a world of people doing it really tough right now, I’m not even on the scale.

That didn’t stop me buying flowers to cheer myself up though.

On the plus side, I bought them from a small, local florist who had only been in business a few months before Covid 19.

On the minus side, they’re out of season cut flowers with a carbon footprint I don’t even want to think about.

On the plus side, photographing them has provided me with shots for #fridayflowers.

On the minus, I’ve learned that flowers which look great in a vase don’t necessarily photograph well.

Image: Su Leslie 2020
Image: Su Leslie 2020
Image: Su Leslie 2020
On the plus side, I’m going to shut up now, pour myself a glass of wine, and try not to think of reasons to get stressed about that.

“Through the trouble of this world there still runs a thin stream of serenity for those who seek it.”

/ Su Leslie / 30 Comments

img_7134

Entrance to cottage garden at Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. The title of this post repeats the words on the sculpture. Image; Su Leslie 2019

I’m still trawling the archive for Friday Flowers posts, and today we are returning to one of my favourite places — Bason Botanic Gardens in Whanganui, NZ.

I’ve written about Bason Gardens before — and used the quote in a post title — but Stanley Bason’s words resonate with me now as much as ever.

“Through the trouble of this world there still runs a thin stream of serenity for those who seek it.” — Stanley Bason (1900-1976: farmer, gardener, philanthropist and visionary)

Today’s photos were taken last December, when the Big T and I visited Whanganui for an early Christmas with my dad and step-mother. T had never been to Bason Gardens before and I felt real pleasure in introducing him to this special place. It helped that we visited late in the day and practically had the 25 hectare park to ourselves.

That we got caught in a massive downpour was a bit of a bummer, but great for the photos.

Roses, Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Roses, Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Rosebud, Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Views from cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Views from cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Roses, Cottage garden, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Tropical house, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Dianthus, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019
Dianthus, Bason Botanic Gardens, Whanganui. Image: Su Leslie 2019

#fridayflowers