Tag Archives: flowers

Bodnant

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Having said that the weather on the Friday was awful, it was in parts. Fortunately we had decided to head to the north coast, and ended up at Bodnant Gardens – the weather had cleared up as we passed (we were originally headed for Penryn Castle because some of it was indoors) so we decided to go in. And what a good decision that was – one of the best gardens I’ve been to. Thoroughly recommended.
It’s made up of several levels. At the top, there’s a fairly traditional formal flower garden

With more butterflies!
Below that, there’s a rose garden, then there’s this lily pond

And below that, there’s *another* lily pond


And then below all that, there’s a path through the woods, with a stream.
And a particularly photogenic waterfall.

Tyntesfield

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In lieu of a “proper” summer holiday this year, I had a couple of weeks off and we pottered about a bit. We had a week in Wales (pics to follow), but started off with a visit to Tyntesfield
The National Trust have done a massive amount of restoration since they acquired the property in 2002, and the whole building is currently covered in a mass of scaffolding. Interestingly, they’ve built a viewing platform, so you can actually go up and see what’s going on. It’s fascinating to be able to look out over the roof!

The garden had an excellent array of flowers in bloom, so out came the Panasonic compact camera in macro mode.
I’m told they’re dahlias. To me, the natural world consists of lilies, roses, tulips and “flowers”.


Abbey House Gardens

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A visit to Abbey House Gardens in Malmesbury in early September. I seem to have taken quite a lot of photos of bees this year, and am quite pleased with these two.

Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/250 @ f11, ISO 250


Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/320 @ f8, ISO 400

And finally I rather like the colours, light and shadow on this.

Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/640 @ f8, ISO 160

The garden

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These were actually taken on the same day as the previous ones, later in the afternoon.

This is a courgette flower, in the evening sunlight at the front of the house.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equiv, 1/500 @ f4, ISO 100

 

One of our lilys – I think the water droplets come from watering rather than rain.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equiv, 1/200 @ f2.8, ISO 100

 


This one is much less arty than the others, but does show just how many vegetables we* were growing! The plants in the blue Ikea bags are green beans, runner beans, peas, mange-tout and petit-pois, while the stuff in the black buckets at the front are potatoes. The metal cages you can make out at the back are supporting the tomatoes. Some of the tomatoes are still going, 6ft tall and with massive fruit. We’ve already made two batches of green tomato chutney (one of them a huge batch) as well as tomato sauce and tomato soup.
* That’s the royal “we” of course. My job in the garden is to cut the lawn and lug bags of compost around.

Panasonic FX-37, 26mm equiv, 1/60 @ f4, ISO 100

 


First lot – Dyrham Park

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So that I’ve got something to show, we’ll start by going back a bit into the summer.
These are from Dyrham Park near Bath, taken when I had a couple of days off in July.
I’m a bit of a sucker for skies like this, especially when combined with a nice building like that.

Nikon D200, Sigma 10-20mm lens at 10mm, 1/125 @ f11, ISO 100
I thought I’d dig out my (not terribly good) macro lens and get in really close to a few flowers. I really need to buy a decent macro, but that will have to wait.
Anyway, a really vivid yellow.
 

Nikon D200, Cosina 100mm macro lens, 1/25 @ f11, ISO 100

 

 

 

 

There were an amazing number of dragonflies buzzing about the gardens. Most of them were small neon blue things, and they seemed to be hanging around in groups, shagging. But, there were a couple of real whoppers as well – totally impossible to photograph in flight, but they did helpfully land on the water occasionally. Just a shame that they landed on the mankiest bit of water…
 

Nikon D200, Nikon 18-200VR lens at 200mm, 1/50 @ f11. ISO 100

 

 

 

 

I absolutely love my 10-20mm lens (15-30mm equivalent in 35mm terms) and use it all the time. There’s just no other way you could take a shot like this.
 

Nikon D200, Sigma 10-20mm lens at 10mm, 1/640 @ f5.6, ISO 160