Winter Jasmine Sunburst - December 2018

After an atrocious spell of weather last weekend, which saw the heavens open non-stop for about 48 hours, there was finally a dry, if cold day for my photo shoot at the beginning of the week.

After last week's jaunt around my own garden, I was back over at dad's this week, and hunting down the final blooms of the year that had popped up in the garden.

The sunbursts from the raindrops hanging from this Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) flower bud immediately caught my eye. However, in using an f-stop of f/20 to capture them, I realised how dirty my camera's sensor had become, so the image needed quite a lot of work to remove the dust spots in post-processing!

Herb Robert - December 2018

I'd last encountered the Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum) blooms back in August, and they were on their second outing of the year then. So, I was quite surprised to see them blooming yet again in December!

Erigeron Droplets - December 2018

There were still a few Erigeron 'Stallone' (Erigeron karvinskianus) blooms braving the cold and the wet, with this one carrying more than its fair share of tiny raindrops.

Wet Winter Honeysuckle - December 2018

The Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) bushes were gaining in flowering momentum, but hadn't escaped the onslaught of the rain.

Droplet Platform - December 2018

The last of the Mahonia (Mahonia japonica) bush flower buds were also covered in droplets, and would soon be making way for berries.

Summer Jasmine Berries - December 2018

The Summer Jasmine (Jasminum officinale) bush, on the other hand, had already converted flowers into these black berries. This is apparently quite a rare event in the UK, so I might have to collect them and try growing on the seeds.

Backlit Catkins - December 2018

The Twisted Hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') tree catkins continued to develop apace, and I thought they looked quite good in this lighting.

Amongst the Branches - December 2018

A quick change of lenses saw me pointing the camera towards the lovely blue sky, where there was plenty of bird life around. The House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) flitted around from treetop to treetop...

Starling Reception - December 2018

...while the Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) perched up high on any structure they could find and chattered away incessantly.

Feral Friends - December 2018

The Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) found safety in numbers, and journeyed from rooftop to rooftop in small groups...

Finch at the Top - December 2018

...while this lone Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) checked out its domain from high up in a treetop.

Like Rudolf - October 2018

Finally my fishy friends. I thought I'd post a picture of one of my shoal of Rummy-nose Tetras (Hemigrammus rhodostomus), simply because Christmas is fast approaching, and they remind me of Rudolf, with their lovely red noses!

So this week I went with Winter Jasmine Sunburst as my Image of the Week, simply because it's quite a while since I tried capturing Sunbursts, and doing so reminded me that I needed to clean my camera sensor...