Painting the Countryside Yellow

If you drive anywhere in the UK at this time of year, you can't help but see miles and miles of yellow fields - Oilseed Rape as far as the eye can see. It's a true sign of spring and always brings a smile to my face. I was walking in West Marden last week and strolled to the top of Jubilee Clump where I took this lovely lot. It's in the heart of West Sussex with views down to the Solent and Isle of Wight - spectacular on a clear day. It's interesting that you'd imagine the best results would come with the sun out but it actually made the exposure extremely difficult. I'm still quite pleased with the results though - what do you think?

Who needs Tuscany?

Whilst sunflowers are certainly not uncommon in the UK - lots of gardens in my village currently have their towering, yellow faces pearing over fences and up the sides of walls - a whole field of them came as quite a surprise!

A month ago I was lucky to have visited Tuscany - something that had been on my 'list of things to do' for a very long time. Driving from Pisa airport their were acres of sunflowers, on both sides of the road, stretching for miles into the distance. Sadly, on an auto-route, we couldn't slam on the brakes and stop for me to take photos (although I did suggest it 2 or 3 times!). Imagine my surprise when driving back from Chichester yesterday when I saw a field of them, growing in our very own West Sussex. Who needs Tuscany....?