#308 - Gull Feather on Lichen with Raindrops

Sometimes you see something and it's just pure luck that you weren't looking the other way; I nearly stepped on this beautiful, rain-draggled, gull feather this morning. It looked amazing on the tarmac but I like the way it looks on the stone wall with its pale green and grey lichen. Beyond the wall, the gulls were swooping over the water and up into the steely sky.

#307 - Moss Spores in the Rain

So, for the last couple of years I have walked past this high wall by the reservoir, the moss grows in emerald cushions along the lichen covered stone and the spores have scarlet stems and translucent tips so that the light behind them makes them glow bright green. Yesterday, walking past in the rain, the colours were even brighter than usual and silvery drops of water were caught in the tangle of stalks.

#306 - Snowdrops, Wood and Iron

Spring is here. It must be true because there are snowdrops in the woods.

#305 - Morning Leaves

These tiny leaves were frosted white as they grew in grass that still lay in the shadows, the morning sun had melted most of the frost away and when I moved these leaves to photograph them most of the ice crystals disappeared in seconds. Still, even half frozen, the way they look in the sun, it looks hopeful somehow.

#304 - Ground Cover

Every year, after winter, the weeds grow out of the gravel in tiny rosettes. They don't grow into anything spectacular but I love the way they push their brave green faces out of the purple-blue stones.

#303 - Alder Cones at Sundown

The best place to view the sunset in the park is standing by the row of alders at the top of the hill; all you can see is sky and trees and grass. Most of the trees are still winter-bare but the alders have last years cones and the earliest catkins of the new season. The cones are spent and open, hanging in neat clusters. I like the way they look against the faint colours of dusk, quiet and somehow composed.

#302 - Ice Flower

A cold, bright February day. Much as I enjoyed the extra weeks of sunshine on a different continent, my life would have been poorer without this afternoons muddy dogwalk, shards of ice glittering underfoot like glass.

#301 - Frozen

After six weeks in Africa with its vibrant emeralds and dusty reds, the duns and greys of an English winter are freshly wonderous. Before work, I walked under the beautiful, bare boughs of trees, dark against the snow and the pale morning sky, and glancing up I was stunned by this pink cherry blossom, dripping down on to the ground where the snow had melted and frozen again into sheets of ice.