Reading · the quiet sublime

In May I spent some time in the field with India and Chris documenting their growing collection of bearded irises. I teased a little in this post about how I witnessed them glow after dusk, about how they become bold beacons of celestial light and how I expected them to lift off their chunky stalks and drift into the candyfloss sky… Thankfully they stayed firmly anchored in the ground and stuck around long enough for me to photograph them.

We (they) meticulously selected, cut and posed the stems for their individual portraits and India made some arrangements to instil the weirdly-wonderful creatures amongst other floral friends. In spare moments I wandered the greenhouses and growing beds to look for peripheral treats; roses squished against sweating polytunnel sides, ephemeral shadows and stuck my nose in places I’m probably wasn’t supposed to (I think I’ve mentioned before how I make a beeline for the compost/cutting piles in people’s gardens. I feel like they reveal so many secrets and in all honesty I just quite like the look of stuff when it’s all jumbled together and sort of rotten.)

Here are the ‘in-between’ bits I captured in the same field at the same time last year. If you’re also into those things.