I like to find heart shapes in nature, I think they make good subjects for photography so spotting this shrub growing under the shadow of a yew tree was a stroke of luck. Well not so much luck I suppose, in a botanical garden there are so many plants that there are bound to be several with heart shaped leaves. I had to take a few shots to get the lighting just right but I think it works quite well.
This second image is very different. I had paused to rest for a few minutes on a bench in the sun. It was obviously a very old bench and when I looked at the wooden slats that I was sat on I realised that there was a lot of life in the moss and lichens that were growing in abundance.
Lichens are really amazing organisms some varieties are among the oldest living things; did you know 6 - 8% of the earths surface is covered with lichen of one sort or another? Also did you know that lichen can grow inside rock, and they can exist in the most extreme conditions? I guess these must be pretty hardy varieties given the number of butts that must have sat on them over the years, including mine :) .
