Older, but no wiser

Half an hour alone with a camera on a sunny (but very cold!) spring-like day in a picturesque corner of London does wonders for the soul. I happened to be passing through Paddington station, in no particular hurry for once, camera in my bag, and on impulse decided to take a half hour break - after all, it was lunch time - to see what I could find worth photographing.

At first, perhaps not surprisingly, it was the large scale things that caught my eye - this tiny triangle of green, backed by the church, surrounded by tall trees.





But wandering around the edge of this little oasis, on the far side was an unmistakable splash of spring colour. Full blossoms, not just buds, and it's still only January. I've no idea what they are, but they have a beautiful perfume.





I'll admit to being moderately pleased with these. Although I wasn't in a rush as such, I'd set myself a half hour time limit in order to tie in with the train times. The raw shots were all fairly mediocre, but careful cropping can often pick something useful out of a shot that would otherwise never get pulled off the hard drive.



Delightful as the scene may be, this is still the heart of one of the busiest cities on the planet. My little green triangle is entirely surrounded by roads and on a main route to Paddington Station. It wasn't until I got home and took a closer look at the shot below that I saw the specks on the flower - I assume that's pollution, probably particulate emissions from diesel engines.

Poor flowers.