Flowers and feathers

I took these photos on a really dull day. They are of some dahlias that have been planted in large tubs around the fountains in Place Charles de Gaulle.

However the fountains provided a really bright white reflection and background which has given the photos a surreal appearance.


This dark almost black dahlia reminded me of the sea urchins that are found in the sea around here. The colours are very similar and the spiky petals just add to the similarity.


Dahlias remind me of my Grampa who was a phemonenal gardener. He had hundreds of rose bushes of all sorts of varieties and always made space for different kids of dahlias too. When i was at primary school, I'd stop at his house on the way to school and ask for some flowers to take to my teacher.

If he cut dahlias , I remember he always gave them a good shake while holding them upside down as the flower heads were always infested with earwigs. The earwigs obviously loved hiding in the nooks and crannies between the petals.
However, I don't suppose the teachers would have been so keen on earwigs running around their desks.

A lot of people are scared of earwigs due to the superstition that they will lay eggs inside people's ears and eat their way through the brain. I think the strange tail pincers add to the fear.

I had a good look at these flowers but there were no earwigs in evidence - I was quite disappointed!
Something about this feather attracted me- it just seemed so perfect lying there on the sandy ground.

This tiny downy feather lay nearby - it looked like it came from the same kind of bird. Both feathers were so fresh and clean looking that they must have been recently lost by the bird.








feather
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dahlia