Further studies in Light and Shade

You know I can't resist taking photos of light and shade... Fortunately I can legitimately indulge this addiction as a means of giving you a progress report on some of my veg.

This is a close-up of Rosemary leaves, with the light behind them. You can see the little "bumpy bits" that contain the essential oils that give this plant such a lovely aroma.

This is Swiss Chard, given the same treatment. The sunlight on the white stems makes them positively glow. You can also see plenty of evidence that I have been harvesting this stuff.

This is Beetroot "Boltardy". Reliable as ever!

Here's one of its leaves.

Beetroot "Burpees Golden" is evidently a slow grower. We have yet to sample it, but hopefully the moment to do so is not too far away now.

This is lettuce "Fristina", probably my favourite lettuce of all. It has frilly crunchy leaves and is very vigorous. Looks very much like an Endive, but is much sweeter.

The two standard Bay trees on my patio are getting some more leaves now. In the Spring about half of their leaves turned yellow and fell off. I was worried that the plants were dying, because Spring doesn't seem like the logical time for a tree to shed its leaves, but looking back at last year I remember they did exactly the same - and some of my first photos (from July / August 2010) show healthy-looking Bay trees, so I suppose this sort of behaviour must now be considered normal for them.

And this one of raindrops on a Red Cabbage leaf? Well, this is practically my "Signature photo" by now... I make no apology for including it though - just look at the effect produced by the light passing through the drops!