#364 - Blackberry leaves on snow

The colours are subtle at this time of year and the snow is so bright everything looks somewhat blanched next to it's pristine glory. Blackberry leaves are a continual presence in the city and one of the few plants that still have new growth, even under the snow. I have photographed them in every stage: fresh, new green; robust summer verdure and the showy scarlets and wine-reds of autumn. In the snow they, like everything else, look bleached, but their undersides are all texture - lines and shadows of lines, with the bright pulse of spring hiding in pale veins, and tiny, crimson tipped thorns just showing on  their stems. 

I love the way the snow looks like clouds. The illusion of a juxtaposition of ethereal, airy space against the cruel sharpness of the leaves.