Jardin sous la pluie ...

After a wet morning - and, let's be honest, a miserably wet start to the afternoon - there was a sudden clearing in the clouds and we hightailed it to Benmore Gardens for our fist visit of the new season. I took a whole bunch of photos that I might have used for my blip - you can see them here - but this one struck me as the most unusual. Another shower had attacked us when we were high on the hill above the gardens, having walked under the wonderful tall magnolias out onto the start of the Chilean landscape, and we were back down in the vicinity of the ornamental pond when the sun suddenly appeared again. It was still raining, though much less vigorously, and every branch, every twig, was hung with diamonds. The surface of the pond was brought alive by the light on the rain-pitted surface, and behind me a rainbow was forming between the trees.

Magical, really.