There’s been a fine spell of weather in our part of Scotland, and we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the garden over the past few days. It is wonderful to see things sprouting and growing – especially the resilient blooms of flowers and plants in whose cultivation I’ve had no hand. I love the moss that grows on our old walls and the wild violets that spring up in the gaps of the paving stones around our front door. The grass around our vegetable beds raises daisies, dandelions, green alkanet, self heal, hearts ease, foxgloves and the occasional heath-spotted orchid (which should tell you something about the boggy nature of our soil). Watching weeds, like watching birds, often makes me think about about how things just get on and make use of what small room there is. A thought that definitely resonates right now.
Tom picked a couple of daisies and dandelions to take some photographs yesterday. Like many of his images, they’ve made me really look again at these familiar plants.
KDD & Co 
How cool. Tom’s images are striking – that bit of pink at the tips of the undersides of the daisy petals is what caught my eye.
Another couple of months before the flowers pop up here, but when they do, it’ll be with a vengeance! Our tiny blooms are all wild, as no outdoor cultivation is possible here. And the only things that survive are those that have adapted to the extreme climate, of course. It’s been fun getting to know the microbiomes of the tundra flowers and berries.
But we do have dandelions.
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What beautiful images.. thanks to both Tom & Kate… can i please send some of my weeds to Tom for visual transformation… Here in Northern California, for me it’s pop weeds, french broom, geraniums…
and i love the natives that volunteer here, especially some very sweet very small ferns which have proliferated under my watch of twenty years… i love the non flashy natives a whole lot….
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My father,who taught art at George Watsons College, took hundreds of slides of flowers/plants and used them to teach pupils how to LOOK at an object and SEE how it was structured. Even those who professed boredom with art or lack of painting ability soon found something of interest, not least because the lessons were so unexpected – not just ‘here’s a flower arrangem,ent – paint it’. I know many pupils took away more than an appreciation of flowers into their adult lives.
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Wowzers.
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Ha ha! I’ve just read the comments, after having eye surgery, so it’s rather difficult. Anyway, when I read the comment by Judy Evans–“Diolch yn fawr iawn”, my brain read, “Ditch yer front lawn!” Appropriate, don’t you think?
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Thank you for your beautiful daily missives!
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Stunning photos! Especially that first black and white of the dandelion. It looks so delicate and translucent. Such a contrast to how hardy the plants are. Tom, you have such a wonderful eye for light and shadow. :)
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Delighted to see the dandelion treated with respect in Tom’s photos. I love it in all forms — from lion’s tooth leaves to puffball seed heads!
My own garden is inherited from my mother, who planted borage, calendula, cranesbill geranium, and a creeping variety of sedum — all of which are rampant self-seeding, spreading growers. At this point, they all act like weeds, so the only real obligation I feel is to keep it a fair fight among them when one begins to tip the balance. It’s a pleasure to sit quietly and listen to the bees at work.
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Need to look again at these…when they come up!! violets are up but that is IT. Soon and very soon…
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Wow, Tom, you’ve done it again!
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Tom has such a wonderful eye for shadow and detail.
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I’d love to see Tom offer prints of these pics. They’re absolutely stunning!
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The photos are wonderful. Crocuses are our first flowers, then dandelions. The crocuses should be poking their heads out soon, It has been a cold spring here in south eastern Saskatchewan, Canada.
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I feel the peace and beauty of the flowers . The early mornings spent together are a gift.
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Wonderful photographs, Tom. Who knew dandelions were so beautiful—almost like miniature dahlias.
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Stunning photography thank you for sharing.
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Beautiful photographs! I’m enjoying making daisy chains again with my 5 year old daughter. I suspect she enjoys blowing dandelion clocks even more though!
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No such thing as a weed, just a plant in the wrong place…. as part of my job as an ecologist I literally walk environments identifying native and non-native plants- yesterday was a survey on a section of old Cornish hedgebank, identifying the ferns, grasses, ruderals and other herbs all present. My regular walks along my local lanes are kind of on-going CPD in terms of reminding me what our native wild plants look like pre-flowering, during flowering, and post-flowering, so I can id vegetative growth, not just flowers. My first degree was in plant biology and genetics, many many years ago, and I’ve never quite lost my love/interest in all things botanical. My PhD was on sunflower genetics- really biochemistry and molecular biology, but Tom’s photos remind me of my tiny heated growth room, full of dwarf sunflowers, that I used to fertilise very carefully in a ring using a small paint brush, following the sequence of sunflower stigma, and the time fertilised identified by a tiny pin and coloured tab.
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wish I could take a walk with you, Yolande!
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Agree!
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Stunning pictures. Thank you for sharing. xxx
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Oh my word those are amazing images
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The simplest of flowers made special, I shall leap out of bed and go into the garden and ‘look again’. Thanks again.
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Stunning photography as always from Tom!
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I so love your blog, whether it be Tom’s wonderful photographs, the cuckoo, suffragettes, dogs or whatever – I hope you realise what an inspiration it is in these reflective times. Diolch yn fawr iawn
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What amazing images. They make me want to go into my garden right now, pick a daisy and study it closely. Isn’t nature wonderful?
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I love your ‘eye’ Tom. Your series on Kate’s mystery object was beautiful and now we have these lovely, lovely daisy photos.
Here in southern France where we have just had our first decent rain for months, snails are crawling out, the first poppies are on the stone walls, cistus are flowering, the new figs forming and, no doubt, there will be armies of caterpillars in our ‘potager’. World’s away from other scenes right now but thanks for making us look and appreciate more fully what we have.
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He is a bit good isn’t he?!! 😊
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No’ bad, as we say in Fife.
Glorious photos, Tom.
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