Botanic Garden, Oxford

A great morning today spent wandering round the Botanic Garden in Oxford. I've been wanting to visit for some time, not least because of its connection with Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy.

The bees were all over this Allium giganteum. There was so much to see and photograph, but I've settled on this one for today's blip because the flower heads are so striking with all their stars. I can never resist a good sunflower photo, and the giant water lily was pretty impressive too, so have added these as a couple of extras.