I spent a busy hour or so taking pictures of the wonderful floral displays on view at Peterhead New Parish Church’s Flower Festival during Peterhead Scottish Week this year. All the displays were inspired by the titles of hymns, and the creators had taken very different approaches to their work, from the cakes, sweets and chocolate (Yield not to Temptation) to a trumpet, old Salvation Army Bonnet and Bible (Onward Christian Soldiers).

Mary and I had visited the exhibition a couple of days before and the Session Clerk challenged me to look for different pictures of the displays.  I am always up for a challenge…..!   Visually there was just too much to look at, to be able to create interesting photographs, be it of the whole church, or even the individual displays.  What caught my eye often were the small details.  For me the joy was in the detail.   In the end I took about a hundred pictures of the Flower Festival (you can see them on my Flickr Page by CLICKING HERE) but today I want to pick out just a few to illustrate the joy in the detail.

On the communion table was a large display inspired by the Hymn, Bind us together.

To illustrate As the deer pants for the water, an elaborate garden was created using wild flowers, with just so much to look at.  What drew my eye was the little deer.

It was the few stalks of oats that drew my eye among the bread, birds and seeds on display in We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land.

The Old Rugged Cross was there on in the simple illustration of this favourite hymn with blue robe and crown of thorns but it was the simple pile of stones that I wanted to get up close to and photograph.

I took lots of pictures of the display based round the font to illustrate the baptismal hymn, By cool Siloam’s shady rill, to try to get one that I liked.  It was difficult to get the detail in the lovely  white christening gown and there were so many distractions in the background of the pictures.  I tried, close up and from the gallery.  In the end it is the detail of the lace on the gown which I have chosen.