Wonderfully purple

This fantastically purple clump of heather seduced me for my blip today - it was right beside my path, and a fat bee had just left it. I was experimenting with focus, so I think there are about half a dozen tiny flowers in the top right hand quadrant of the photo that are actually in focus, but the colour is the thing that drew me. The countryside seems to be in transit more than ever just now - the first waves of leaves were blowing to the ground in a light northerly wind under the tall trees of Benmore, while on the sheltered hillside flowers bloomed even as leaves on a neighbouring tree turned red.

My extra photo is of a little stupa on the Bhutanese hillside, overlooking Glen Massan. When they first went up - I think there are three of them altogether - they seemed raw and intrusive, but the stone has mellowed, and people have added pebbles and - on this one at least - a fluttering of prayer flags. It's on a quiet, hidden path at the top of a steep cliff; I've never seen anyone there, though clearly people have passed that way.