Wakehurst Place

To mark the beginning of the summer (and some glorious weather!) and to provide observational drawings for my FMP, the family and I went to Wakehurst Place which has some fantastic gardens and a seed bank (although to be honest, I remember the seed bank being more interesting than it actually was- might have something to do with the fact it's a Sunday and not many people were working there).
Still, I managed to get some fab photos, not all completely related to my FMP project but I could tuck them away and use them later.
They also have some great sculptures- this one is by the very great Peter Randall-Page ( I have vivid memories of studying his work in GCSE art and having to carve out a bar of soap- took ages!!!! Then again, I was using a skewer....).

Here are a few of my favourite photos of the day!

Macro shots of different cacti- I particularly like the one on the left as it looks like it has little flowers all over it.

Rohdodendron buds (which look a bit like candyfloss or chewed bubblegum...nice) and some fungi that was hidden inside a hollow tree.

Some macro shots of this amazing tree bark- both images are from the same tree! At the top it was all flaking off like wet wallpaper, and at the bottom it was all wrinkly! Reminds me of skin a bit, don't know about you?

And finally (for today at least- there were loads more!!!) some very pretty flowers whose name I can't remember and some lichen growing on a tree.

So hope you enjoyed my little photographic trip to Wakehurst Place- now I have to try and draw some of them in my sketchbook!!!