The weather was sunny with a gentle breeze yesterday for the first of two Open Garden days at Caldecote Old Rectory - a bit bright for photography but great to enjoy the wildflower and more formal parts of these wonderful garden.
I was hoping to photograph lots of species at Royston to get some practise for this season's flowers but the dry (and sometimes unseasonably hot) weather has certainly inhibited growth and flowering. These were the only plants (other than small ground species and grasses) that I managed to photograph:- Yellow Thistle, Salad Burnet, Common Rock Rose and Yellow Mignonette
With this last week's warm temperatures, a lot of flowers have come into bloom while others are dying away. It is definitely Red Campion time making wonderful splashes of colour everywhere contrasting with the blue Alkanet and Centaurea. Buttercups have largely taken over from Cowslips in the meadow, the Bogbean is in bloom in the pond, the Perennial Alyssum is attracting lots of insects along with the three species of Spurge etc!!
Generally photographers spend a lot of time trying to get maximum depth of field and very sharp focus so it was fun photographing Bluebells etc with an old lens (Olympus 50mm manual f1.8 lens from my original film camera system) attached to a modern digital body working wide open and shooting into the light or with foliage very close to the lens (work in progress).
With the last 2 weeks' warm and sunny weather, the garden has suddenly come to life. Thanks to all the hard work done by friends from Paxton Pits Volunteers over the last 3 weeks, I am able to enjoy the flowers and insects.
