Exotic Easter...

Well, actually Easter was not at all exotic, but we did go out to the garden centre and some of the plants there were most exotic-looking. This made a change from a distinctive un-exotic lifestyle which seems to consist of preparing and marking exam papers in a very un-tropical climate (we're back into minus° figures in the morning here... Freezing!).

Some of the flowers that we came across seem to resemble strange reptiles, with their lizard-like speckled markings and bizarre colouration.



Others looked like strange seaweed, or maybe even straggly sea creatures, with odd tendrils that look like crustaceans' feelers or long, stalky legs. The one below reminded me of an elongated sea anemone...

 Others again looked like exploding coral...

Some plants don't appear to be natural at all, but composed of some synthetic fabric instead...

 Or perhaps made of just plain plastic, or rubber...

The aspects, textures and colours are so extreme that they are a shock to the system...

Others look quite daunting with their strange, alien pod formations that make you wonder what will finally burst out.

Some fascinate with their bizarre billowing forms...

And finally there are others that are just striking in the modest delicacy of their petals...

 And then the feather-like petals, clustered around the hidden stamens...

And the tender pastel water-colour shades with flecks of pollen - unfortunate in the case of pansies as I seem to be allergic to this, but that's a small price to pay!

And finally some flute music to go with that - James Galway playing Pachelbel. I included this as my daughter likes it, and also because when we discovered the magic of the garden centre the background music almost killed off the atmosphere of the place. Only almost, luckily!