CLOSE-UP

I have been neglecting my blog lately but I have two good reasons - one is that the A-Z Challenge used up all my blogging energies for a while, and the other is that I am concentrating on finishing the re-write about which I told my readers during the April Blog Slog.

Anyway, just to keep it ticking over, here are a few photos I took this week.

The first one is of course an estrelizia - strelitzia in the UK or Bird of Paradise flower, This is the most perfect one I've seen blooming on my morning walks recently.


I have also been experimenting with close-ups - the first photo is of poinsettia flowers that have appeared on last Christmas's plant which is now bursting into new life.

Then there's one of the OH's cherished chilli plants - this one starts out purple and slowly ripens through yellow and orange to red. The plant can look stunning with all the colours and the white flowers at the same time, but at the moment it looks a bit pathetic. then there's rosemary, a pretty red leaved thing and a succulent - I love the squareish leaves on this one.

 and finally, guess who had to get in the picture?

It might as well be Spring!

We've had three days of rain over the past week in Tenerife and now look at it!
Seeds that have lain dormant for eighteen months are bursting into instant life everywhere.
I don't know what they are - the millions of pepper seeds that litter the ground under these trees haven't yet joined the rush to germinate - but the air is washed and fragrant with the perfume of pepper trees, and flowers are everywhere.
These white ones are pepper flowers.

The estrelizia is looking great,
roses and hibiscus and frangipani scent the air,

 and on the pepper trees this morning I saw a huge butterfly.

As the song says - "It might as well be Spring!"