Poppy Posy

A second day of working on my jug of flowers for the flower photography course. Started earlier in the afternoon today, so the light on the flowers is different from early yesterday evening.  Brighter and yellower.

I removed the cow parsley immediately after shooting yesterday. For one thing, it was  dropping flowerlets all over the place and secondly, it smelled.

Found some Centauri instead. Am feeling much more confident now about using the app Photopills to estimate dof and how far away from the subject to place the camera, but the dof button on the camera has become  mystifying. Must find the manual.

Busy morning. Started grey and overcast. A rush to get out and take Basil to Stacey for a haircut then direct to Ashby for my podiatry appointment. I felt rather pleased at the looks of dismay that I got when I walked in on two crutches. I don't think a lot of people realise just how major a knee replacement operation is and how long it takes to get better. Perhaps they thought I was going to collapse on them and they'd have to call an ambulance.

Home to a sunny afternoon. Still a very chill breeze from the northeast, but the good thing about that is that temperatures do not become unbearably hot.

I thoroughly recommend listening to Jennifer Leaning who spoke on BBC Radio 4 this morning about climate change, the environment and the impact on human migration. She used Syria as a case study. From 2006 onwards, the country suffered severe drought and people flocked from the countryside into the cities because the crops failed and they had to sell livestock. No housing, no work, no money, how do you think they felt? Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that resentment grew against the government, which, in turn, did absolutely nothing to tackle the situation.

So climate change was a causative factor in the troubles of the Middle East. And 'the most powerful man in the world' doesn't believe in it. Listen if you can. You should be able to find the programme as number 4 in the series, Climate Change and Me. Authored by five scientists.