Jewelled

I was given an early slot this morning for the replacement of my windscreen, so I walked the dogs before 9am. As we were coming back  I noticed some Clematis tangutica seed heads in the front garden, with last night's dew drops catching the low light - so as soon as the dogs were settled in the house I went back out and took my photos of the day.

By the way, I read somewhere recently that dew drop photos are "almost never" genuine dew, but usually sprayed on tap water. This, I promise you, is the real deal!

I then spent hours battling with my editing software - not over this set of shots, which when I finally got round to them only took a few minutes, but over the re-editing of some landscapes that I wanted to submit to a competition. The submission deadline was today, but for some unknown reason Lightroom, PSE and Topaz crashed successively and repeatedly, and what should have been a relatively quick job wound up taking most of the day. I really need some more computing power - I just have to decide whether to stay with the devil I know, or if I should take a deep breath and bite the poisoned Apple. Middle-class problems, eh?

I finally submitted my photos just before 5pm, just in time to make dinner and go to choir practice, and then I watched the wonderful Simon Schama presenting his new series The Face of Britain. Memo to self: find an excuse for going to London soon, to see the exhibition at the NPG.

So there we go: another day flown past with less achieved than I expected to get done. But never mind - tomorrow is a fresh start, and very nearly here. Thank you for all the nice things you said about yesterday's hoverfly (which the Hoverfly Man confirmed was Eristalis tenax), and apologies yet again for my recent lack of commenting: I will sort myself out and resume normal service as soon as may be.