Abstract Acer - February 2018

What a glorious morning it was for my photo shoot this week. The sun was out, the wind had died down, the rain had vanished along with the clouds, there were blue skies and all was well with the weather - apart from it was absolutely freezing, but that, I could cope with.

The first thing to catch my eye this week were these bright red branches of an Acer palmatum tree. It was quite difficult getting a decent composition considering the random arrangement of the branches, but they looked so stunning against the blue sky, I simply had to try, and I think this works well enough.

Crocus Pair - February 2018

My next find were this pair of orange coloured Crocus blooms, which still weren't fully open, despite being sat in the sunshine for a couple of hours.

Daffodil Dilemma - February 2018

The Daffodils (Narcissus) were coming into bud, but something had taken a liking to them, and was nibbling away at the outer petals.

Full of Promise - February 2018

The Camellia bush had hundreds of buds waiting to open, and the avalanche of flowering was just about to start, with quite a few flowers in this state of prettiness.

Budding Flames - February 2018

The Forest Flame (Pieris) bush still had an abundance of flower buds too, although they would usually open a little later in the year.

Periwinkle Awakening - February 2018

The Periwinkle (Vinca) plants continued to flower apace, and looked pretty from whatever angle you chose to view them from.

Winter Honeysuckle Regeneration - February 2018

The flowers of the Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) bush seemed to be coming to an end, with only a few branches left with buds left to open.

Mahonia Berries - February 2018

The berries of the Mahonia japonica bush continued to ripen, and would go from plum coloured to almost black in the next couple of weeks.

Verbena Seeds - February 2018

There were quite a few flowers in the garden that had self seeded last year, and I was hopeful that these Verbena 'Buenos Aires' (Verbena bonariensis) plants would join in and spread around a bit.

Hello - February 2018

Turning my camera to our feathered friends, I was quite pleased to grab an impromptu shot of this Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) emerging from a potential new home.

Wren - February 2018

Now, this may not be the best photo of a Wren (Troglodytidae) you've ever seen, but it's definitely the best one I've ever taken - trust me, there is a bird in the picture!

Siskin - February 2018

It really is a frustrating experience trying to take pictures of small birds, like this Siskin (Carduelis spinus), when they decide that they'd rather stay in the tree tops, than come and feed at a lovely bird table that you've prepared with some tasty seed.

Waiting - February 2018

At least this Robin (Erithacus rubecula) decided to sit in the lower down branches of a tree, but still far enough away for me to covet a longer lens.

Incoming - February 2018

Of course, the squadrons of Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) had no problems getting close, with some of them literally trying to fly down the camera lens.

Rummy-nose Tetra - February 2018

Finally, I've been trying to grab a decent shot of some of my fish swimming this week. It turns out it's quite a difficult task, which resulted in lots of blurry imagery. I definitely need to work on my technique as this was the only image out of about fifty that I shot of a swimming Rummy-nose Tetra (Hemigrammus rhodostomus) that was anywhere near sharp enough to post! Must try harder!

So, this week I chose Abstract Acer as my Image of the Week, simply because I thought the combination of the red branches and blue sky was quite striking...