#355 - Blackberry heart on Maple

Took this photo a couple of weeks ago, walking the dog in the rain the morning we were meeting as a family to plant a tree on my father's grave. The day cleared up and was another beautiful golden one, like the day of his funeral. We prayed, one of the children read a poem and then we all sang in the November sunlight - "O Lord My God, When I in awesome wonder, consider all the works Thy hand has made..."

#354 - Rain on Leaves

The end of October and let the rainy walks begin. I was trying to take a different picture, blue sloes against a gold and russet beech tree, when I saw these rain-silvered, ghost leaves lying in the grass. The season changes and the world is unrecognisable, almost. Each year,  I re-remember.

#353 - Rosebay Willowherb tops

Strolling past the great bank of weeds that border one side of the stream, I noticed that the leaves at the very top of the Rosebay Willowherb plants were like fiery chrysanthemums.

#352 - Ragged leaves in the sun

Spotted these threadbare Maple leaves low down in the hedgerow and held them up to the afternoon sun. Made me think of these lines by Shakespeare: 

"Till whatsoever star that guides my moving
Points on me graciously with fair aspect,
And puts apparel on my tattered loving..."
(Shakespeare, Sonnet 26)

I love the phrase, 'tattered loving' and these worn leaves reflect too, the wearing on of the year and how winter will soon be upon us.

#351 - Brown Mottlegill fungi

I think Autumn might be turning out to be one of my favourite seasons for taking pictures. Or perhaps it's the turn of a season I like, as all the plants change over there seems to be so much to see: new Autumn crocuses, a pool of lilac under the grey skies; the trees beginning to blaze on one side, as if we are waiting in that breathless moment after you place a match and wait to see if the fire will catch; the berries, red and purple... and green apples. And of course, mushrooms in the grass. 

#250 - Narrow-leafed Ash leaves

Some slim purple and scarlet leaves we found scattered in the grass under the ash tree. The cold weather is coaxing all the trees into flame.

#349 - Autumn palette

Mild autumn days with soft rain... I'd forgotten how much I like these. The children and I put on our rain coats and collected leaves from the Maples in the park. Looking back, as we headed home for tea, we could see our decorated log from across the park, a splash of colour under the sombre, dripping trees.

#348 - Hawthorn berries

Feeling miserable with the usual start-of-term virus, I forced myself out to walk the dog and discovered a glorious afternoon. The hawthorn trees were thick with glowing berries; the contrast of the bright, scarlet haws against the flawless blue of the sky was stunning. 

#347 - Autumnal Equinox

We are enjoying a late summer; cool evenings but days bright with sunlight and unexpected warmth. The tail-end of September and the trees are still green... until today, from across the park I saw the maples had turned. Scarlet and gold in the distance and my heart gave a little leap.

#346 - Seedheads against Clouds

Towards the end of summer the hedgerows begin to change. The blackberries are purpling, the cherry-plums reddening and the wild chervil loses its beautiful, lacy flowerheads and begins to hold up slim, glossy, black seeds. It's not quite autumn, the sloes are still dark green and the Rosebay-Willowherb is still lining the river-bank, but it won't be long...

#345 - River Stones

Yesterday was a perfect sunny day spent by the river; the children building dams, making mud-pies, painting their arms and legs black with silt, wading upstream between the trees... Happiness.

344 - Hedge nettle on river stone

More treasures, scattered carelessly in the grass. I thought this was real nettle and was waiting for the sting but then I noticed all the beautiful tiger markings that make this tiny wild-flower look almost orchid-like. I love the way the deep pink is reflected in the wet stone.

#343 - Marigold, Ragwort and Rosebay Willowherb

Orange, yellow and fuschia - August colours. 

#342 - Tufted Vetch with Meadow Vetchling

Because it's so miserable and grey today I thought I'd post these gorgeous meadow flowers from last weeks sunshine days. They make me feel happy to be alive.

#341 - Pennywort flowers in stone

These flowers grow all the way up a high stone wall I must have walked past a hundred times. Every crevice in the lichen-covered stone is crammed with cheerful little violet and gold faces.

#340 - Moon Daisies

Happy Moon Daisies from my happy place. Revisited one of my favourite walks from my teen days and found a forest of daisies, on wasteland, between two of the high stone walls which are everywhere in Somerset. Just for a moment I felt seventeen again.

#339 - Wild Honeysuckle

Such a wildly extravagant plant, all dramatic curls and arabesques. I couldn't resist this Japanese honeysuckle growing in the Somerset lane I was walking up today. It had spilled over from a nearby garden - I noticed how city plots are far more neatly contained, here the gardens climb over the stone walls, spilling into the road exuberantly.

#338 - Hedge Bindweeed on rock

The bugle vine flowers were holding the sunshine so blindingly this afternoon - they were glorious with light.

#337 - Linden flowers

Perfect Linden flowers... the limes in our local park have finished flowering but further afield the trees are covered with masses of these gorgeous pale-green blossoms. Because they are green they are easily missed,  I had never noticed them before I started this blog, so it makes me happy to think my life is richer for having linden flowers in it.

#336 - Pyrenean Cranesbill on bark

Oh the blues and purples of summertime! I love the way you can take a different turn in the park and find a flower you've never seen before. July is full of surprises.

#335 - Common Marigold on Clay

I dream of one day living in the country but, in the meantime, I love being surprised by the city. Walking in a different playing field near our house we came across banks of marigolds growing wild out of the red, sun-baked clay earth.

#334 - Silverweed Leaves on Grass

"In the open spaces between the trees the grass was so fresh and green that the brightness of it caught at one's heart."
(Elizabeth Goudge, Henrietta's House)

#333 - Light and Shadow on Wild Geranium

I loved the way the light was casting shadows of the long, curving stamens on these Wild Geranium flowers, and, when I put them in the sun, it shone through the tissue-thin petals showing near-transparent veins. Simply breathtaking.

#332 - Tufted Vetch

I love these tiny purple-blue flowers that sit in the tall grasses like miniscule perching birds. They look so vibrant and exotic against the green.

# 331 - Green alkanet in the rain

Beautiful blue flowers in the rain. Blue makes me happy!

#330 - Dog-rose in Sunlight

I was meditating last week on something written by St. Irenaeus of Lyons:“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” 

Seeing these roses in the sun brought the words to my mind again, "fully alive" - because, opening their petals wide into the afternoon light, they looked so unashamedly life-full, so unabashedly vital. It was somehow moving and challenging at the same time. 

#329 - Buttercup and Grass Vetchling

A sunny picture from a couple of days ago. This makes me think of happy summer days in the park and the smell of mown grass. Buttercups do hold the light so beautifully...

#328 - Blue

And how can you begin to describe this blue? The indigo/purple of high summer skies on clear nights. I remember, in my student days, slipping out into the darkness and walking the city streets just to be out under such skies.

#327 - Meadow Buttercup

"This was the best of May - the small brown birds
Wisely reiterating endlessly
What no man learnt yet, in or out of school"
(Edward Thomas - Sedge-warblers)

#326 - Primrose in Roots

I wonder if anyone can look at a Primrose and not feel their heart lifted, just a little. 

#325 - Sunlight on Apple Blossom

Another beautiful day with a long, light-filled afternoon... happy voices and children running across wide, green spaces in the sunshine. Wandering behind the pine trees I saw a tree covered in crumpled pink buds, just a few flowers on each bough were already open mouthed and crisply white, the petals casting their own stark shadows in the brightness.

#324 - Speedwell on Bark

Spring is late this year, the Speedwell is only just appearing in the grass. The flowers look as though they have been painted with watercolours, a wash of delicate blue and then a hint of pale violet so that they are sometimes one colour and sometimes the other.

#323 - Wood Violet on Moss

The woods were beautiful with violets today. A whole carpet of them under the trees, growing between the mossy rocks and roots on the riverbank.

#322 - Coltsfoot on Charred Wood

Some more beautiful bright flowers from the other day. These were closed because of the rain but I could still see them from across the park. Loud and insistent. 

#321 - Flowering Quince and Grass

Well, I wasn't expecting to find this somewhat exotic looking shrub hiding under the roots of a pine but it was a rather lovely surprise. On the earthy floor, covered in faded old pine needles and bark scales, the flowers seemed to have their own light, rather like the new green grass that is pushing up toward the sun.

#320 - Old and New

This little blossom tree stands in a copse of tall pines, they soar far overhead and shelter this cherry tree which blooms all winterlong. It is the same tree that I came across over a year ago on a dull December day, a miraculous flowering in the woods. I was trying to capture the incongruity of it when I placed these faintly blushing blossoms on the gnarled grey trunk of a fallen tree.

#319 - Fir cones

I like the way the scales on these fir-cones curl outwards ever so slightly so that they look like petals. Tawny coloured flowers from the forest floor.

#318 - Gorse on Good Friday

"For all creation is waiting eagerly..." The Bible (Romans 8:19)

Here, in the city, Spring is still only hinted at in most places. Coming round the path up in the hills yesterday, I saw this low gorse bush with it's candle-like flowers glowing vividly against the sombre evergreens. It made me think of those words in the bible about waiting eagerly, or, "in eager expectation". The hope of Spring, of new life and growth, seemed to be encapsulated in these bright little blooms. 

#317 - Joyful and Triumphant

After a difficult day at work with a class full of fractious pre-teens, I was really hoping my husband had walked the dog. Turns out I was glad he hadn't. If he had, I would've missed these. Made me think of a Grace Nichols poem I haven't read in years:

...pulling on my old black jacket

resolutely winding

a scarf round and round my neck

winter rituals I had grown to 

accept

with all the courage of an unemerged 

butterfly

I unbolted the door and stepped outside

only to have that daffodil baby

kick me in the eye

(from 'Spring' by Grace Nichols)

#316 - Cherry Plum Blossom and Purple Deadnettle

I was trying to explain Spring to my in-laws when I was in Africa this Christmas, and failing - how can you explain the world coming back to life? Maybe it's as much to do with the absence of winter as anything else, it feels like a miracle every year. On our walk today I could see the first drops of colour appearing in the world; tiny blue speedwell flowers, golden celandines on the banks of the stream and the mauve flowers of the purple deadnettle. It makes me glad to be alive!

#315 - New Nettle Leaves

By the gateway into the park there's a tree that is always first with it's leaves and yesterday I saw it was fully green - that bright, singing green that the newest leaves have. Everything else is so nearly there, a week of sunshine and the year is going to tip into colour... Stepped over these new nettles growing up through the grass and couldn't help stopping to look more closely.

#314 - Hawthorne buds

It is almost hard to explain why the world is so beautiful in spring. Yesterday the park was still looking drab; I gravitated towards the cherry plum trees, looking diaphanous and radiant, because there is not much else that is out. But every tree is full of promise. The twigs are swelling and, here and there, the feathery tips of green and silver leaves are showing. Next to the cherry plum, a hawthorn bush looked grey and wintery, but the long thorns were covered in tiny pink nubs. The whole world is humming with expectation. It makes me think of a poem by the Afro-Guyanese poet, John Agard:

But sometimes
you know
when I see
de rainbow
so full of glow
and curving
like she bearing child
I does want know
if God
ain't a woman

If that so
the woman got style
man she got style

#313 - Blossom at Dusk

The early blossom is endlessly exquisite, even on the drab days we have been having.  I took this photo at the end of the day, the light was fading and as soon as I placed the flowers on the stone the wind, which had turned cold, would whip them away and tumble them into the mud. Three times I picked them up from where they had been scattered and eventually I gave up and headed for home.  But later, when I checked my phone, one of the pictures had come out perfectly... the rough stone, the beautiful flowers casting stamen shadows on the rock behind, and a glimpse of the darkening sky beyond.

#312 - Purple and Green Ivy Leaves

Beside one of the paths we take in the park, ivy grows up the trees, looping from branch to branch and hanging in swathes over the stream. I am fascinated with the fact that even on the same tree the leaves are different: some green with yellow veins; some purple and threaded with green; some five fingered like maple leaves, some three and some smooth edged and glossy.

#311 - Catkins

Such a gorgeous afternoon. The pussy willow is fully out now and lighting up silver in the sun. 

#310 - Open Crocuses

There are a few different colours of crocus this spring, but my favourite are these lilac ones that are smaller, and more delicate looking than some of the others. I love the way their fragile lavender petals open so hopefully in the sun exposing their saffron yellow centres. The contrast is so unexpected that it somehow lifts the heart.

#309 - Yellow Crocus Flowers

Yes, the first of the yellow flowers. I hadn't noticed before but I love the elegant flaring designs on the base of the petals. Crocuses in the rain look so demure, buttoned-up, even a little prim, despite their colour. It's hard to imagine how they transform with a little early Spring sunshine.

#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.