Another scorcher of a day

We enjoyed the fireworks display put on by the village last night to end the National Day celebrations. I took many photos but they were all rubbish - despite having read up beforehand and doing the right thing...used a tripod, manual focus, low ISO's f/8 or f/11. The problem was the tripod - when your camera is stuck on a tripod and there is a firework whizzing directly above your head, and you expected it to explode in front of you, you cannot tilt the tripod up quick enough. Eventually I gave up on the useless tripod and hand held the camera, which is why they were all rubbish! But some nice effects, even if a little blurry.

Today was another scorcher - 31C but at least there was a bit of a breeze. After all the lazing about yesterday we set off on a walk this morning. This time I told the boys to go ahead as I was taking photographs at my leisure - and Gavin kindly stuck at my pace. I was amazed at the wild flowers - maybe I am noticing them more now that I have invested in a macro lens? We saw species that I was able to identify thanks to my little flower guide book, like Arnica, Scheuchzer's Bellflower, and thistle as can be seen in this image. It was a lovely walk and we stopped off at a mountain restaurant near the end of the walk for a salad lunch.