Line-up (and some Californian Poppies)

Today was the day of our annual Departmental Photograph.

The professional photographers are trying to line up the subjects in decreasing height order so that they can move onto the raked platforms in what the photographers think is an aesthetically pleasing alignment.

These young people are are mostly researchers working towards their doctorates. They are not very slick at working out who is taller and who is shorter than their companions!

We are in the University Parks, which are within metres of our department building. It usually rains on 'photograph day', but for once it is sunny. How nice.

And where are the Academic and Technical staff?. The Academics sit on the front row: being seated they do not need to be height-graded, apparently. The bloke in the middle is a great friend of mine. He retires this year, but until recently was Head of Department. The new HoD is on the far right of the 'photo, and can be seen more clearly here. The group of people behind, in special blue T-shirts, are some of the technicians: the most important people in the department. One of them is, I think, the tallest individual to figure in our artistic work today.

And, here for something completely different are some splendid Californian Poppies that I found flowering when I returned home. This plant seeded itself last year between the bricks of the parking area in front of our house, and managed to survive the quite cold conditions of mid-winter (I thought that they are only half-hardy). I've had to be careful when parking not to run over the plant, and I'm glad I managed it.