I was trying to photograph the poppies. 

I love them, they are so flouncy and huge. Overblown blossoms that go in days but are dazzling for their time. Blowsy, bright like over-red lipstick. Crinkling, rustling skirts. 

The seed pods too can be as beautiful as the flowers themselves. Going into autumn, they become frosted sculptures reaching up over the hard earth. 

So I was trying the photograph Grandma’s poppies on that bright, light day and Bertie wandered into the shot.

Bertie, for the uninitiated is our rescued dog, a border terrier/staffy cross. He is amazing, but from the beginning he decided to help look after me. So he barely leaves my side, and so often appears suddenly in my photographs. In fact he is so used to them, he turns and poses for the camera now. 

Staffordshire terriers are very human-oriented and Bertie always wants to know what’s going on and how he can help. And preferably guard me and get fuss at the same time. 

I decided I liked this picture in the end, Bertie is everywhere with us. As a rescue, he is too nervous to be left on his own so he comes everywhere with us. 

As much as I am in every shot, because you are seeing my view of the world, an image of the wonder(ing) I am seeing from my waist height view, Bertie and Linus are in every shot too as they are always with me. They make it possible for me to take the picture. 

A pantheon in every image. 

Everything that goes to make up me coming through in how I see our lives. 

But more than that, all those who touch my life. All those who work to make this living, breathing, inspiration-soaked, blood, bone and heart-beat of creation continue. 

Who makes up you?

Who keeps your “…suspect edifice upright in air, As Atlas did the sky”?