IGPOTY

Here I am at the International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition at Kew Gardens...

... and here's the frog.

I was awarded a copy of the book for reaching the finals, and he's in it!   :)

Caught in the Act!

It took me almost two hours to get from my desk to the car park on Thursday evening (well it is at least a hundred yards away!).The sun was shining, so I had decided to go for an adventure around the Gardens to see what I could find.

The bees were drinking from the sides of the pond, so of course I had to photograph them; unfortunately I'm not the only one in Ashridge with a camera, so thank you Norman, for this 'lovely' image of me with my head in a pond!

Butterflies and Flowers

I spent Friday morning at Butterfly World and was saddened by the sight of the 'lepidopterophobics'. I was surprised when my specialist told me that it wasn't an uncommon fear, when I visited The Priory last month. He would have been proud of the fact that I stopped a small child from crying and a mother from taking her outside. It's amazing how easy it can be to take a child's attention away from fear. We talked about the colours and the shapes of the butterflies, and I told her that even if the one we were looking at flew away, it wouldn't hurt her.

What saddened me most was an hysterical mother flapping her arms as her small child watched from his pushchair; it seemed as if she were in competition with the butterflies, but arms do not move as gracefully as wings. How easily phobias can be transferred.

This is the flower that grabbed my attention; it was lovely to see the landscape transforming again.

Seeing my photos hanging in the restaurant and my work in the shop was surreal.

I've been a bit hard on myself this week (for a change!) and there's been too much mind reading, but being able to show the world the beauty that I see is good.