Festive

I've had this Echeveria 'Black Prince' for years,  but I'd completely forgotten that it's capable of flowering - so it was a nice surprise when I realised the other day that it was putting out a couple of flower spikes. I'd initially thought of isolating one of them against a black background, but then realised that the plant itself is so dark that I really only needed to frame the shot to take advantage of that fact. I may be stretching the whole trying-to-get-into-the-Christmas-spirit thing, but I think the colours look quite festive.

Even though I had my blip in the bag by lunchtime, I couldn't resist taking the camera when R and I went into Stratford this afternoon; now that I'm used to the tufted ducks being back on the river, I'm upping the degree of photographic difficulty by trying to capture them against really interesting watery bokeh. Although it was a dark and dour day, I was surprised to find that the little light there was was bouncing beautifully off the water surface, and I was spoiled for choice in picking out a Duck of the Day; the one I went for is here, if you'd care to take a look.

And if you have the time, I'm pretty sure this image would be better viewed full-screen.