Skeletons in the Garden

At this time of year, everyone is eagerly watching out for all the leaves and flowers that are popping up all over the place. I am certainly enthusiastic about every little splash of green in the hedgerows as nature comes alive again. Before clearing out the flower beds completely, I just wanted to catch the remnants of last year's greenery.

I acquired some poppies in the last couple of years, presumably imported via the local birds. They provided a lot of welcome colour in the garden so I left the heads behind when they finished flowering, as much to allow the seeds to spread as through laziness. All that is left now is a skeleton army, crowned empty cages where the heads used to be:

In their own way, these empty heads are every bit as beautiful as the flowers they used to be.

It's Raining Again!

It was a very soggy school run this morning but I still enjoyed the walk, the rain on my face was really refreshing and was far more effective than the coffee I'd had when it came to making me feel more awake. I hadn't expected to find any good pictures today but then I spotted a Christmas tree ornament dangling from a still-bare tree, which made me smile and, of course, I just had to get the camera out:

Returning to the car park along the riverside path I saw nothing inspirational - until I was almost back at the car. Instead of seeing puddles on black tarmac, I saw a mirror, reflecting the trees ahead of me:

My final picture was taken from inside the car, looking out of the windscreen through the rain; a simple scene that we see so often and never notice, I love the way that the water distorts the view to create an entirely different picture, making art out of a miserable view.

Silver Linings

When the sky is grey, it can be hard to imagine that there is still blue sky beyond the clouds. This picture shows two very different sky views layered together, with the rough dark clouds that threatened rain all day splitting apart and a peaceful blue sky lurking in the background, a few wispy little white clouds sitting high in the distance. It reminds me that however dull or stormy a situation might be, there is still calm beyond it, waiting for the clouds to move away.

They say that every cloud has a silver lining - it shows up quite well here! I am not sure that I have ever seen clouds glowing quite so brightly before.

Minutes later the cloud had thinned, turning silver to gold, almost appearing to set the trees on fire:

The sunset here created a remarkable deep pink colour deep within these heavy clouds. The sky below is remarkably colourless in contrast, leaving the coloured cloud looking as though the fire is coming from inside.

Finally, a picture taken moments after sunset when the sun itself has moved out of sight but the sky is still glowing a golden yellow. The cloud layer above was so thick in the sky that it seems almost completely black in contrast to the last scraps of daylight, a blackout blind being drawn down to turn day into night in one stroke.