Who doesn't love to play badminton?

When I was a kid, I knew summer was right around the corner when my folks set up the badminton net in the backyard. I was lucky in that there were several households with young girls my age on our street. During the school year, we walked to school together in the morning, then walked home together for lunch. If there was time, and if I was done eating (I was an embarrassingly slow eater back then), we'd catch a soap opera on TV after lunch before heading back to class.

During the summer we could often be found at one of our houses or the other. When the badminton net went up, we'd spend hours playing, with more than half our time devoted to retrieving the shuttlecock from the neighbor's yard when one of us hit it too hard.

Badminton, when played well, is an extremely fast-paced game. I can still hear the whooshing of the rackets, and the light twang and pop sound when racket and shuttlecock came into contact. Unlike tennis, much of the control comes from your wrist, rather than your entire arm which can make the transition from badminton to tennis, or vice versa, challenging.

I'll stop there before I put my foot in my mouth discussing the nuances of these two fine sports.

What does badminton have to do with today's blipfoto? These lovely flowers, just around the corner from my house, look just like badminton shuttlecocks!

Look out for my wicked 'kill shot'.