Anna (www.floramedica.org)

The deal we made with our kids yesterday seemed simple: if the weather is nice we go to the Botanical Gardens; if it's bad we go to a softplay. Today it started off being really quite bad, but did improve a lot in the afternoon. Unfortunately, there's some kind of mental lag inside our kids and they were still convinced the weather was lousy and that they should be bouncing around in an indoor softplay. We finally cajoled them into the Botanical Gardens, but our daughter was still in a bit of a sulk.

That is, until she met this wonderful lady who showed her that you can use nettles for your biscuits and tea. I think what clinched it was when she showed her how to put nettle leaves into your mouth without hurting yourself. I told her that for kids of her age nettles are like a weapon of mass destruction, so it really was very brave of our daughter to follow her example and, importantly, not to subsequently scream the place down. She certainly perked up after that and went on to have a great time kicking leaves with her brother.

I did take some pictures of Anna posing with her nettles, but I prefer this one I took while she was talking to me. I think some of my best portrait poses come from me observing what the subject is doing and getting them to reproduce that action for me. Here I liked the way she angles her head forward when talking to someone.