If I described this shot to someone who’d not seen it, I’d probably say something like ‘pistachio nuts on a wooden table’. Funnily enough, I’d have said much the same about yesterday’s shot too.

Despite this, I don’t think they could be more different. Yesterday’s had the pistachios as the stars of the pic – the shot was taken under tungsten light and the wooden surface was a pine chopping board that I’ve had for donkey’s years…..A Habitat ‘butcher’s block’. As a complete aside, my Mum said to me at the time I bought it – what on earth do you want with a butcher’s block and I retorted it’s a great thing that’ll last me a lifetime. Well, half a lifetime on, I’ve still got it and still use it several times every day and I’m so glad I decided on the expensive butcher’s block not the lightweight one.

The whole image yesterday was warm and very cosy. (I think anyway.)

Today’s shot has a different star – my solid English oak dining table that is truly my ‘pride and joy’. I had it made specially for me in times when I was probably quite a lot better off than now if truth be told. It looks old. It’s built in classic ‘refectory’ style, but it is, in fact, modern oak, built for me by Antonio – an old friend of my Dad’s.

Anyway, yesterday’s Herculean efforts meant the dining table is now back in its place and it has been polished up to gleaming point. The wood really does look tiger-ish and I feel this is fitting for our mighty oak tree. I describe the table as modern but the wood is probably many years old.

So, this shot has the tiger stripes or flames of the wood’s natural colouration and grain as its star. The pistachios almost get pipped into third place because I think their reflections in the highly-polished surface should get second place in the image. The shot is also taken using natural light coming in through the window. It’s not even a sunny day and the wood still shines and glints.

So, where’s the beauty? In the table, the reflections or the nuts? Well, the table gets it for me even though you could describe it as the prop/background or foil to the pistachios. Don’t forget, barring fire or flood, the table will still be carrying nuts and other food, certainly for decades and maybe for hundreds of years to come.

Last year, I was in Falmouth and admiring the architecture.