Wash and brush up

I've been overwhelmed by the amazing response to yesterday's ladybird image - many thanks to everyone who commented on or favourited them! I'd love to thank everyone personally, but once again I'm short of time!!

To be honest, I'm totally amazed the shot came out so well. I only had one chance before the seven-spot ladybird wandered off. There was a fair breeze blowing the daisy head about, so I wasn't really expecting it to be in focus. The original was underexposed, because I didn't have time to change the settings, but because I shot in RAW, I was ablet o correct that afterwards, and it meant that none of the highlights were blown.So a heavy dose of serendipity!!

Today I haven't been so lucky photographically... It was Alex's first exam, and because we home educate we have to travel to Cambridge, 40 miles away, so that he can sit them as a private candidate. This means leaving the house before seven, to get ahead of the rush-hour traffic. We arrived almost an hour early, but this gave him plenty of time to eat his breakfast of banana sandwiches! I met another home educator, whose daughter was also taking psychology GCSE , and we occupied our time swapping tales in a back-street cofee shop.

We arrived back home before lunch, but by then both of us were pretty tired. I took the dogs out along the river, but the skies were grey, the wind was blowing and I felt uninspired. I wasn't happy with anything I took, but luckily when I arrived home, Daisy decided to have a thorough wash and brush up lying on the lawn - and didn't take any notice when I thrust a camera in her face. So that became today's blip! At least she's cute.