Make a Wish

Cloudy 21ºC

It is simple, consists of many little fluffly seeds, white and round....if you have never looked at it closely it would be just another annoying weed that grows abundantly in your backyards...it is really a very pretty delicate flower...up close, each little seed is a flower in its own right, perched symmetrically upon a pin cushion like base.  Enjoy a macro look into the Taraxacum Officinale, also known as the humble "dandelion" flower...

When seeing them in macro they always remind me of fireworks, every one of them.

But before all that prettiness...this little yellow flower is what makes it all happen...

If you would like to witness the transformation from yellow petals to white seeds click here to see the amazing timelapse video by Neil Bromhall from beginning to end.

You may now close your eyes...make a wish and blow...

 

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Poppy Love

Windy & Cloudy 19ºC

In a week that was low in inspiration; low in creativity; low in mood, got my hands on a bunch of my favourite blooms - the simple yet extremely beautiful Poppies - just the thing to get back on a high.  It has become the star three days in a row, in my Project 365, my camera and I just can't get enough of them...over two hundred images in three days with more to surely come as they bloom.

Think I might be the last person to know that sunshine is what these cut flowers needed, after having them for the last two days the buds haven't budged a bit and none of them were opening so I put them out in the little sunshine we had this cold windy Winters morning for a couple of hours and I was pleasantly surprised to see they were opening up and shedding their shells right in front of my eyes...amazing, well to me anyway.

The journey of a poppy is just like the ugly duckling story, beginning from the humble, ugly and hairy bud to progress to the final stage of their journey to bloom into beautiful delicate blooms...

From an ugly duckling ...

A smile that hides a secret

to cracking open...

to shedding it's shell...

to freedom and having a stretch...

to breathing in the beautiful fresh air and feeling the sunshine...

to grow into the beautiful Swans that Poppies are...

These shots were all taken in the same space of time so they are all different buds and flowers...if only I had the patience and time to shoot one bud and it's journey to beauty.

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