The King....Protea

Such a wonderful and regal bloom.
Often when I am working with the flowers...taking the pics and then fiddling I am fortunate to feel their personalities shine through....and I have wonderful conversations (in my head without words) with them...they direct me in the direction of how they want to be seen.
And no I'm not on drugs or cough syrup....its just very hard to explain what I mean without sounding a bit bonkers. I hope you can feel the fuzzy softness from looking at this.
Anyway...this one was very direct and large is good.

The smoke has cleared from our close vicinity but in no way have the fires subsided...just down the road a ways have just succumbed to the flames. For the first time in a few weeks I feel like I can breath again...its been a bit tough with having the lurgy at the same time.
I am feeling the huge loss of our wonderful furry and slithery ones that have found no escape ........tears escape my eyes as I write.