Cheer-up orchid

An indoor sort of day today - probably the best place because it's been cold and grey. Normally Alex and I go off to Orton Pit on Thursday mornings, but he's recovering from a cold and I'm fighting one off, so we decided to give it a miss.

This gave me the chance to put up some tiles behind the sink in Chris's bedroom. We painted the room back in November 2009, and bought the tiles a month later. They've been sitting there waiting ever since - and today it took me all of half-an-hour to do them. What had I been waiting for?

This afternoon the boys went ice-skating with their home-educated friends and I had a long chat with my friend Emma about the trials and tribulations of living with teenage boys -she has fourteen year old twins! At the end of skating Ben was delighted when Emma's son Reuben gave him his old ice-skates, which he'd grown out of. They're such a nice bunch of lads, very close and they just get on so well.

We got home just after 3.30pm but the light was already fading fast, so no chance of any outdoor shots. So today my winter cheer-up orchid has had to stand in as a model. This was my favourite shot as it shows the texture of the petals, and as you can see, I had a bit of fun with the processing.