Gifts from the garden

Today is my birthday and I got a lovely card from all the volunteers as well as a selection of fruit that Rajan found for me in the garden.  In the picture the fruit is on the dress that I bought as a special treat for myself on Saturday.

Taking the picture was much, much more difficult than I anticipated.  I thought it was just a case of arranging everything and then pointing the camera.  Not so!  I had the extra problem of trying to get proper lighting  because I didn't have time to take the picture until after dark and of course I don't have proper photography lights.  I couldn't include the card because it is very shiny and with the light shining or rather flashing off it I couldn't get a decent picture.  I'm sure there is a technique in taking such photos of shiny things but I couldn't work out what it is. Then it was difficult to arrange everything so it looked like - what exactly? Interesting? Pleasing to the eye?  Balanced? I don't know really as I didn't have a clear idea about what the picture was trying to express.

I just wanted to take a picture of things that meant something to me on this day.     The dress which I love wearing and the wondrous bounty of the food that we produce in Buddha Garden month after month.  This being an expression of the very deep satisfaction I still get from doing this work.

All this in a day where I feel I have constantly been running to catch up which is very typical of this time of year.  I sometimes think I should be like the queen and have an official birthday at a less busy time when there would be time to do something like meditating or even just sitting down and drawing a very slow breath......