Crescent magnolias
(Magnolia blossom in the Summer Palace: Beijing, China)
Sorry for the quiet weekend – it is a busy time at the moment with changeovers of flatmates and other upheavals. Anyway, I thought I might slip in this image of Magnolia blossom; we saw it throughout the Summer Palace during our visit to Beijing. The Summer Palace felt like a real retreat – not least because blossom and buds were in abundance, whereas in downtown Beijing, there were none. It was odd and somewhat disorienting, as we had merely taken the underground halfway across the city to arrive there. The trees were dusted with knots of greenery and as you can see, Magnolia was impressive.
In JingShan Park, we passed a small crescent shaped courtyard in which there were two or three magnolias standing together. The scent was undeniably intoxicating, it was almost solid in it’s intensity and we spent several minutes just standing there with these enormous flowerheads bobbing in the sky above us.
– Today Rosie is in the UK, drawing again –
