Island Paradise

Sunset over an island in Fiji

Another old photograph from my gap year travels, this time from Fiji. One of the most relaxed days we spent on our travels was on this Fijian island; we were taken out there one morning by boat and then got to spend the whole day on a little island, lounging on the beach, snorkelling with amazingly brightly-coloured fish (and I saw two cuttlefish! Probably sepia latimanus, the broadclub cuttlefish, which is very common on coral reefs) and even doing a spot of sea kayaking which proved rather more strenuous than we had anticipated.

Fiji is totally beautiful and you should go there. Although, take insane amounts of insect repellant because I was eaten alive by mosquitos and managed to snag a spider bite that made my foot swell up like a pufferfish into the bargain.

Metal Implant

I have no idea what this random yet very specifically shaped piece of metal was doing on the top of a wooden post near my house, but I rather liked the colours it's made as it gently rusts away. It's hard to find nice flowers to photograph in the winter, but I guess that doesn't mean there's nothing at all of interest around and about.

Pastel Perfect

I was surprised to see that I hadn't already blogged this picture, because I am quite fond of it! I love the colours of the hydrangea and the contrast with the little marmalade hoverfly (which looks like it's balancing on one leg in that picture).

Whilst I don't know the name of this kind of hydrangea (I would guess it's hydrangea macrophylla?), it's apparently a lacecap as opposed to a mophead - meaning that it has large, showy but sterile flowers around the outer edge of a number of much smaller fertile ones -you can see the two types in the picture. Mophead hydrangeas are the ones you immediately think of when someone leaps out from behind a wall and shouts "hydrangea!" - i.e., the ones with big round fluffy-looking flowerheads. The colour of your hydrangeas will be affected by the pH of the soil, which is rather interesting.

Sunrise, Sunset

It's a sunset, actually, but that's not the point. Although Wikipedia tells me that sunset colours are "typically more brilliant than sunrise colours, because the evening air contains more particles than morning air". Who knew?

One of the most depressing things about winter is when the nights start drawing in. I do not appreciate night arriving while I am still in the office. It is rude.

Stripes

I'm still annoyed at myself for having sliced off the edges of the petals in this picture. I was in a hurry, we were just about to leave the garden when I suddenly saw these flowers and they really struck me. The combination of very vibrant, unusual colours with a rather standard and unexciting shape is refreshing.