Not-so-silent spring

The grey skies continued, but although it was a bit chilly I needed to get out and de-stress. I see other blippers doing tax returns (shudder), so I'm sure money worries are preying on minds other than just mine.

The great thing about cloudy days is that the even light is perfect for bringing out the real colours in flowers - they don't get bleached out in the sunlight, but instead glow quietly.

I'm finding my outings generate more pictures than I have time to process, and the task of ruthlessly editing is great discipline. My choice is being guided by what evoked the spirit of today for me, or what spoke to me when I got home, not just what might be the 'best' picture.

This blackbird was one of the last pictures I took today. He was singing his soul out and hardly paused for breath the whole time I watched him. Despite that, the trickiest part was actually catching him with his bill open!

I don't have a decent telephoto lens at the moment, so wildlife shots are somewhat restricted. Sometimes though, I actually prefer to place creatures in their context (yes, more blossom!) and in this case I had those beautiful old Japanese paintings in mind, which always seem to capture ephemeral fragility and timelessness in one.

I have been impressed by the quality, delicacy, originality and variety of people's pictures here - really inspiring stuff. There's enough creativity on Blipfoto to power a small city!