Valley Deep...

Swathes upon swathes of waist-high cow parsley. Yes, a weed!

All shimmering in the spring sunlight - under a canopy of lime-green beeches -

LARGE

...a mere stone's throw from Ministry of Defence land...

...where they fly red flags and pop-pop sporadically at unseen targets...(unseen photographers, too??)...

somewhere SECRET on the east Wiltshire/west Hampshire border...OK, it's not actually a secret location, it's on a map, but I'm pretending that it is, to make it seem more magical...and romantic...

Just a couple of miles from one of the largest military camps in the UK.

An elderly woman was in a state of perpetual delight. She had never seen anything like it, in her ENTIRE life... her two dogs looked as if they didn't really care, either way.

I told her I wanted to make them arty black and whites. She thought that the camera took them that way and was disappointed at the dark colour originals on my screen, which she could hardly see anyway.

So, Blip had to be black and white. I did seven in the end. This was by far the hardest to edit - in fact, I think it has been the single most difficult edit I have ever done! Keeping the highlights from bleaching out, yet giving the white flowers contrast and "life", the huge contrasts created by the tree against the blinding sun - excellent flare control, from the Nikkor 10-24mm lens! Etc etc etc...

You can see just how high this bank is by looking at the dwarfed farmhouse, at the bottom right. The cow parsley spreads out to the right, too, but flatter. Where I was able to play safe with many much simpler shots, I chickened out and as usual, made life much harder for myself. But to be honest I wasn't entirely happy with the previous six - and this, my last, yes, just about. I've done my best and that's as good as you're going to get!

LARGE (again) (no pressure!)

Catch yer later, folks!