Ther Year of the Tulip.

It's not that we haven't planted tulips every other year..no usually at least a pot of red ones...

..and then we remember how much we love them and promise ourselves that we'll buy more next year...

... we discovered Sarah Raven's catalogues..oh my what wonderful tulips she offered...though not cheap!

The other problem we always find .....is the timing for planting them up...too soon and they could rot if the weather is too warm or too wet...so you leave them in the package...until suddenly it's December and you notice that the tulips are still out in the back porch in their paper bag.

You dig some deep holes or search around for empty clay pots and hope that you can still get a big bag of bulb compost in the supermarkets!

This year...we grabbed a dozen bags of tulips from Aldi or Llidl...we had decided to economize.

They have been wonderful!

                                ..parrot          and        feather

golden feather

...and peach with a stripe.

The potter says.."It's the year of the tulip"

Discovering John Blakemore...photographer.

I've discovered the work of the photographer...John Blakemore...yes I know ...rather late in his life...but sooner late than never.

So I'm inspired by his work to try to push my own photography on a bit.

His work on tulips started me off as a pot in the living room was almost dead and yet still reaching out for the light....I did what "they" recommend...took loads and loads of the same thing but each one slightly different and that assessed them before editing.

 ...at the same time I had an article about Steichen and his iconic photo of Gloria Swanson around ...reading it from time to time in between other things...and so I tried the black net over the lens to capture a distance in the pics....
...fun and maybe a bit of success and a moving on in what I am trying to achieve.

Do you do what I do every year...buy bulbs and then forget to plant them...or even buy the bulbs in flower in the early spring to pop in the ground and never get round to it?
Pat at The Weaver of Grass and Karen at Moonlight and Hares have the bestest pics of their snowdrops.....
My snowdrops have all but disappeared ..I go out looking for them in late winter...but only the early leaves of the bluebells appear. So I buy again...and once again don't get round to putting them in the soil.
Thankyou Pat and Karen for the pics...I must survive on these...and maybe manage this year to plant the pots!

I may get round to the tulips...I really love red tulips..here's hoping!