From Borobudur to Bridge-of-Allan

I have decided to improve my technical photographic skills, encouraged by professional photographers and blippers Dave and Gill Hunt, and I have switched off the automatic function in my camera.

Armed with my newfound knowledge I trawled the garden in search of a subject.

Tucked in a hidden corner is this head of Buddha, which we bought many years ago from an architectural salvage firm in Crickhowell, (my home town) in Wales.

It is a copy of a head made from sandstone in Borobudur on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Having seen one of the originals which Raffles, the British governor of Java brought back from the temple of Borobudur and is in the British Museum, I would say it is a very good copy.

The complex of Borobudur built around 750-850 AD is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Neil McGregor, featured one of these heads, and there are hundreds of them, in his radio series "A History of the World in a 100 Objects".

Despite our recent spell of cold weather the birds are still not interested in the cotoneaster berries which lie around the head like an offering.