Spring into autumn

I've often thought that it's a bad move to upload a Blip too early in the day in case something better comes along. Today was one of those days!

It's been a chilly but bright day today and as Mrs M is away seeing her Mum I did think of going for a drive to find some good autumnal pictures, though as I had a dental appointment at lunchtime that rather messed up the day. I decided to put on a picture of the Dental Surgery which is opposite Tesco's car park, to fulfil my usual obligation to picture something which happened during my day, and in fact had already uploaded the picture when I decided to visit the library having a lot of books to take back. After coming home I noticed the sun shining through the flowers of Rhododendron thomsonii and was glad that I'd not used the dental picture! It's odd that the flower is showing some yellow in the sunlight as it's a plain red bloom.

Many rhododendrons have a second flowering in the autumn; something in the weather pattern sets them off. Unfortunately once the flower buds have opened there is no longer time to produce new ones before the spring, so those flowered shoots won't flower again.