In our garden, at dusk this evening. Flickr version here.

Spotted in a friend’s house, last night. Flickr version here.

On the old coach road from London to Cambridge. Great St Mary’s is the University church. There used to be a regulation that University officers had to live within 20 miles of the building, and undergraduates within three. Not sure whether the former regulation still applies, given property prices in Cambridge.

Seen in a friend’s living room.

Astonishing photograph of the NASA space shuttle Atlantis is seen in silhouette during solar transit, last Tuesday (May 12).

The photographer, Thierry Legault, made the image using a solar-filtered Takahashi 5-inch refracting telescope and a Canon 5D Mark II digital camera.

Thanks for Brian for spotting it.

The New York Times staff photographers have a nice blog.

Flickr version here.

Near the Botanical Garden. Flickr version here.

High point of this Bank Holiday was a walk in a wood carpeted with bluebells.

Flickr versions here and here.

LATER: Nice message from Harry M:

Glad to see that yours are the native British variety. Round my neck of the woods we have been invaded by the Spanish variety which hybridises with the native and produces inferior offspring. See Bluebells in Wikipedia. From which an extract below.

“In Britain and probably elsewhere there has been extensive hybridisation with the introduced Hyacinthoides hispanica producing fertile seeds. This has produced hybrid swarms around sites of introductions and, since the the hybrids are able to thrive in a wider range of environmental conditions, the hybrids are frequently out-competing the native Bluebells. Hybrids show a great range of characteristics and any one of the following features indicates some hybridisation. Stems upright and not nodding; flowers borne on more than one side of the flowing stem; the flower is more open and bell shaped and does not have a long and more or less parallel sided tube; the anthers, at least when young are blue or cyan and not white or cream; the leaves are broader; the scent is less strong and less sweet.”

Flickr version here.