It’s Christmas Eve – and the weather is absurdly warm! No chance of delicate fragments of crystallised water falling from the sky. I just thought the colour and texture of this white pelargonium might be a little bit suitably seasonal! I love using macro photography to see the wonder of plant life, though – at any time of year!
I found this bracken earlier today, and thought, at first, what a powerful single-colour study it made. Looking more closely, however, I saw that it wasn’t entirely brown; here and there were several intriguing little green shoots. I thought this was surprising, considering the recent very cold weather. The water droplets you can see are from frost that is only just melting!
I always think there’s something hauntingly beautiful about trees in winter. I’ve left this shot in colour, but it’s almost black and white. The skyscape seemed to be a fitting herald for the forecast snow. I wonder how many snowstorms that tree has faced?
December again, already…! I noticed how much of this there was in an old apple tree I have. Somehow, it’s strange to think of mistletoe as a parasitic plant; there’s no such thing as a mistletoe tree!
Until fairly recently, mistletoe was considered to be little more than a pest that damaged the host tree (other than its links with Christmas time!) but it does, in fact, make a positive ecological contribution.
Today, I wanted to convey the wintery chill along with the autumn colours. I found how to do this without really thinking about it very much. As it happened, it was convenient to shoot into the afternoon light, giving the bluish reflections from the wet leaves near the top of the picture. Does it make you shiver?
I took this shot only today. Out in the countryside, I happened to notice The way the sunlight was lighting up what appears to be a kind of clearing in this wooded area (this photo was taken from some distance away.) At this time of year, there are often interesting effects like this, due to the low angle of the sun’s rays.
This week I went looking for something different from my usual autumn pictures, and here it is. Amazingly, sage just keeps growing, almost defying the approach of winter – this is lovely if you use it for cooking!
I love looking for the shape and line in all plants; here, the almost monochrome look also appeals to me – remember, monochrome doesn’t have to be black and white!
As I’ve remarked before, autumn can get very dreary and dismal, but today was definitely not one of those days. Sunlight at a low angle gave some marvellous effects. Once again, daylight proved to be the most amazing light of all.
It never fails to amaze me, how some flowers just keep going until autumn is well on its way through! Although sometimes there doesn’t seem to much about in the way of floral cheer, I found this in my father’s garden only yesterday. This particular variety seems to hang on incredibly well – usually until the first severe frost. And magenta is a colour I love – or have mentioned that before?
I know this isn’t much of a photo, but I’m putting it here this week as a reminder of what happened last Monday (16/10/17.) That morning there was a most weird effect in the sky; it appeared to be filled with a greenish-yellow fog, with the sun itself showing as a faint red ball – which could be directly observed with no risk of eye damage! This was evidently caused by a mixture of desert dust from the Sahara, and smoke from forest fires in Spain, all brought to Britain by winds that were part of Storm Ophelia. At one point, just after midday, I needed to put lights on to see, indoors!
I have seen this effect before, but not very often. I haven’t edited this photo, other than to crop it; this was pretty much how the scene looked.
