Sweet Smelling Philadelphus (Mock Orange)

This is a beautiful looking, and the sweetest smelling, shrub that grows in my garden. It was difficult to decide how to represent it photographically. You could choose just one flower and focus in closely, but I wanted to show how much it is flowering. The number of flowers is staggering, and the smell is is a very subtle orange, not overpowering. I was lying on the grass in our garden after work and just felt like it was worth a shot.

A busy day today. A trip to Manchester with a couple of colleagues for our university's Green Impact Awards. A lovely buffet and we got a silver award for our efforts.

This evening was the first event we attended for Hot Air 2014 - Stoke Literary Festival. Our very first literary festival in Stoke. We went to hear David Starkey talk about his forthcoming book on Henry VIII. He's a brilliant speaker. The event had to be halted as the marquee partially collapsed during his talk and we had to relocate to another part of the event for him to continue.

The whole event has been hosted and started by Emma Bridgewater and her husband Matthew Rice, in the pottery factory they run in Stoke.

We have more talks to go to over the weekend - very cultural!!