Dripping

Having decided yesterday that I would go on a butterfly safari today, I leapt out of bed this morning, threw open the curtains, and discovered that it was sheeting with rain. That'll teach me not to check the weather forecast.

I wasn't too upset because the garden really did need it - despite all the cold and windy gloom we've been experiencing, it has been a very dry spring overall. I discovered when I was weeding last weekend that our clay soil had pretty much set like concrete, and some of the perennials which were trying to force their way through were looking quite sorry for themselves.

I sat in the house doing sitting in the house things until about the middle of the afternoon, by which time I was feeling somewhat exercised over the question of a Tiny Tuesday blip. In the end, despite the fact that it was still raining with some determination, I put on waterproof shoes and squelched off out in search of a photo. Luckily both the 5D and my macro lens are weather-sealed.

There was some debate between R and me this evening about my most interesting photo of the day: R really likes the shot I've put in as an extra, which is the new growth breaking out on our weeping ash tree; but for me this shot of a Clematis montana bloom just edges it - at least in part because the droplet on the anther at about 7 o'clock to the flower centre looks slightly unreal even to my eye. Hand on heart, this is a single shot image, with only basic exposure and contrast tweaks and a crop in Lightroom.

Many thanks to jensphotos for hosting Tiny Tuesday this week; the other entries can be found here.