Tangerine Dreams

I'm afraid that, whilst the weather is as miserable as it is just now, you'll be offered more of my macro work than my 'reportage' style photography to enjoy ... or not as the case may be ;o).

I'm suffering from cabin fever today, but at least my little tangerine has kept me amused for a wee while and there's never a dull moment with a piece of black card, the natural light from the French windows, a brightly coloured subject and my incredible macro lens - thank you Nikon!!

The name 'tangerine' comes from Tangier in Morocco, the port from which the first tangerines were shipped to Europe in 1841. However, the adjective 'tangerine', from Tangier or Tanger, was already an English word, first recorded in 1710, meaning "of or pertaining to Tangier."

The fruit was first called a 'tangerine orange' but later reduced simply to 'tangerine' although confusion still exists to this day between the name tangerine and the name mandarin, and with good reason. The tangerine is a type of mandarin orange, so the oranges shipped from Tangier could also accurately have been called mandarins. However, although the two names can be used interchangeably in a general sense, there is now a particular type of orange called the tangerine, which is different from another type now called the mandarin. The mandarin orange, which is native to China, is thought probably to have received its name because of its resemblance in color to the robes of a mandarin.

History and nomenclature aside .... I hope you like my subject today. I probably wouldn't have given this specimen a second thought, sitting there in the the fruit bowl, if it hadn't been remarkable for still having its green stem and leafery attached. And it's the texture of the underside of the leaf, all veined and yet every so slightly furry that I really wanted to capture .... I hope it has worked.