Wayward flowers

click photo to enlarge
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley"
Robert Burns (1759-1796), Scottish poet and lyricist

Many people will recognise the lines of Rabbie Burns quoted above. They come from his poem, "To a mouse, on turning her up in her nest with the plough", though it is common today for the second line to be replaced with the more modern, "Go often askew". But how many, I wonder, recall what follows these words? The lines continue thus: "An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy!" Read in its fullness Burns' words will strike a chord with many - we have all planned something with great care and the expectation of a favourable outcome, only to be thwarted and disappointed when it all goes wrong.

I thought of these words the other day when I was casting round the garden for a few photographs of our flowering bulbs. In the main we prefer to group like with like so that each variety of flower shows itself off to full effect. However, as I moved from flower bed to flower bed a noticed a couple of bulbs that had, as they say "made their own arrangements". Or perhaps a bird, mole or squirrel had helped them out and moved a bulb to a different location. The first was a couple of tulips among the bluebells a real contrast of deep red against the softer blue of the smaller flowers. The second was a narcissus among the tulips. I recall these being planted in groups alongside each other, but now they seem to be starting to intermingle.

I'm not, despite Burns' words, disappointed by this disruption of our "best laid scheme". It seems to me that sometimes our plans go wrong with positive consequences, and something that has "gang...agley" can offer, unexpectedly, a "promis'd joy" that was unforeseen.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo 1
Photo Title: Tulips Among The Bluebells
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/800 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Thinking about bluebell woods

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I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales, an area where bluebell woods are relatively easy to find. I lived for a while in a part of East Yorkshire where such places were rather more distant. During my time in Lancashire they weren't too difficult to locate. But, when I moved to the Fens I soon discovered that a bluebell wood has to be actively sought out. But no more!

One of our winter activities was to convert an area of gravel garden to meadow and join it up with an area of lawn that would also become part of the same meadow. This more natural grassland with its wild flowers already had an apple tree and a plum tree, and in late winter we planted more fruit trees. The result of all our work is that several trees now stand in an area of long or longish grass that we, rather grandly, call our meadow and orchard. Dog daisies and poppies are growing up through the grass and will flower in June. Other flowers have been sown and we are hoping to see cornflowers and much more as the months pass. However, I'd forgotten about the number of bluebells that grew under the apple tree, and during the past couple of weeks they have made an appearance. I think there are more than last year but that's often the way with these bulbs, especially if they've been disturbed by digging.

It's a little fanciful to describe what we have as a bluebell wood, but it has some of the elements of one. Consequently I mounted my 100mm macro lens on the camera and took a few shots of the flowers, grass and tree trunks in the deepening shade of the early evening sunlight. I almost felt transported back to those scenes of my youth.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 100mm macro
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 0.6 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Bluebells

click photo to enlarge
This year seems to have been a good one for Hyacinthoides non-scripta - otherwise known as the common bluebell. I say that solely on the number and rude health of those that grow in my garden under the trees and in the borders. Since my re-location to Lincolnshire I find it a little harder to pop out to a bluebell wood in May and imbibe the shimmering blue under the thin tree canopy of fresh green leaves. In Lancashire this was an easy task, as it was when I lived in the Yorkshire Dales.

In 2006 I posted a couple of images of the Lancashire bluebell woods at Barnacre and Calder Vale. And, every year since that time, this particular image has been hit upon by people searchingthe web in early May for such a place to visit. For the past few days it has been the most popular page on this blog, and it is likely to remain so until the bluebells have faded or people have had their fill of this lovely spring spectacle.

Today's photograph shows the blooms of a clump of bluebells under an apple tree. I used a long focal length to throw the background of glossy leaves and sun-dappled bushes out of focus.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 119mm (238mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/160
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On