Happily sitting on an orange geum.

Blimey; the flowers in the garden are struggling at the moment - it should a wash with colour, but not so much to go around at the moment. I made lots of effort earlier in the year to grow a few annuals for the first time (cosmos, love in the mist, nasturtiums, sweet peas, verbenas, fennel) etc. Can anyone tell me why my home grown plants never look as healthy as Monty Don's??? Even without this weather, they were never as bushy and vibrant as his inevitably will have been...

Tags:   helios geum orange bee UK outdoors hampshire heatwave low key vintage

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Edited for Sliders Sunday.

Tidying up my archive I found a very vibrant green / yellow shot of heleniums taken last year, which I kind of quite liked, but felt the colour was a little intense. So a perfect opportunity to learn and play with modifying colours.

The channel mixer (in affinity photo, but i think it's fairly standard functionality) doesn't do quite what I hoped it would, but it does allow colours to be manipulated and pulled in different directions. Really interesting exercise. It's apparently very useful when doing 'standard' edits, but here I used it to modify the colours to something a bit more subtle. With some help from a couple of Looks in Topaz Studio 2.

Tags:   HSS Sliders Sunday heleniums channel mixer Topaz Topaz Studio 2 RHS Wisley digital art getting there two channels Nik Collection 4 CEfex review 2022 bee bokeh bokeh

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First stop: Winkworth Arboretum

Unfortunately, I was a little bit early and the blossom wasn't fully out. But a great excuse to get out in some lovely (almost) spring sunshine.

Tags:   blossom cherry blossom NT national trust surrey Winkworth arboretum pink flektogon vintage flare

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In floriographical terms, this hellebore (under it's alternative name of the christmas rose) represents anxiety, or more appropriately, relieving anxiety.

White represents innocence and purity.

I'm not into making political statements, but this felt quite timely.

www.allflorists.co.uk/advice_flowerMeanings.asp#h

Tags:   hellebore christmas rose lenten rose painterly Topaz impressionist white pure innocent no war anxious floriography the language of flowers

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No 2 in my dahlia 'series' that appears to be somewhat more sporadic than I originally intended.

I started editing this back in October, and despite the fact that it is a simple, "respectful" edit (i.e. quite similar to the original) it's somehow taken a few weeks to get finalised :-)

...a combination of general "time out", christmas prep, as well as exploring a couple of other creative avenues. Too little time, too many choices that we have to make as to how to spend it... :-( ....

but hoping everyone is well and feeling simultaneously suitably christmassy and completely unprepared. but don't worry; plenty of time left...at least that's what I keep telling myself

Tags:   dahlia RHS Wisley autumn UK outdoors not christmas yet still plenty of time Dahlia Kelsey Annie Joy halls of heddon YBSNature21 YBSThroughHerLens21

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