Sunflower Delight!

Photographers are optimistic and inclined to venture out whatever the weather throws at them, but I think it’s reasonable to say some days are better than others. As summer draws to an end and we are faced with the prospect of dull mornings and drizzly skies we want a bit of magic to look back on. With this in mind a trip was planned last Thursday to see the sunflowers at Frogmary Farm which is set in the beautiful South Somerset countryside just off the A303 at South Petherton This is the first year the farm has tried to grow sunflowers but unfortunately the first crop planted in early May was deluged with rain, and coupled with the cool conditions in May, did not germinate and grow. Their second crop has been very successful. The field was ablaze with colour with magnificent sunflowers stretching up towards the sky and the challenge was to produce photographs that were creative and did justice to this remarkable spectacle. It is a popular place and visitors were obviously enjoying the experience of wandering through this impenetrable maze and the fact that most people seemed to be constantly lost just added to their enjoyment. One little girl, who only reached about a third the way up the stem of a sunflower, told me she was in fairyland. I told her I thought I was too.

Dog friendly Frogmary Farm boasts some lovely walks but time was against us on the day, so this was something to put in the diary for another.

Before leaving we visited their cafe which has an indoor area and a most attractive outdoor area equipped with a fire for those cooler days which will be upon us soon. There was a tempting array of homemade cakes and imaginative salads on offer which convinced us to linger a while.

Frogmary Farm is not just a place to visit when sunflowers are in bloom. It is an award-winning farm offering a range of farming and business operations all committed to respecting the environment. Events, such as floristry workshops, festive lights and pumpkin picking are on offer during the year. For those who like a bit of spookiness there is a Halloween party on 29th October and the chance to enjoy a Christmas party on 2nd December. This is a definitely a place to come back to.

Our summer break from weekly meetings ended this week as we resumed with a Zoom meeting dedicated to showing our own photos taken since we last met. Contributions were many and varied, and just goes to show the variety of talent we have in the club these days. We ran out of time, so there are few more to catch up on before the end of the month.

Entries for the Open Competition were duly received by Jill and we have the judging of these to look forward to shortly .
Next week, two good friends, Duncan and Deborah Armour return with a talk on their adventures in Madagascar.


Pamela Bruce Lockhart and Jenny Short 02. 09.2022