AN EVENING AMBLE

Setting out for walk just as the mist rolls in may be pleasant - it is - but it's not the most practical time for taking photographs for a blog. Trees I like were in shade; plants in the dullness below bushes. Streaks of sunlight landing on this but not necessarily on that.

It didn't matter. I didn't know what I was looking for. I was out on an evening amble - not a ramble, note; a little stroll nowhere in particular to see what I could see.

Spring, as I note every year, has a lot in common with autumn. Chills and warmth waltz arm in arm. There is death - last year's leaves which have clung on through winter give up and fall. It becomes clear which bushes have died and which merely dormant.

Some Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) are beginning to produce early flowers. Some of the gorse is flowering. We haven't had frosts. The weather has become unpredictable. Most years, you can go out in the morning and find the young Alexanders all flopped over, frost zapped. That hasn't happened (yet?) but their own special rust (Puccinia smyrnii) seems to have got a head start, bringing their leaves and stems out in bright yellow wart type growths.

I'm trying to remember who it was recently who said they didn't like the smell of Alexanders' flowers. (Was it you?) I was surprised. The accumulation of scent when the weather warms up is fantastic - delicate, ethereal yet unmissable. I am not the only one to like them They are pale yellow, large and rather clumpy and not necessarily noticeable except against a blue sky. But flies like them. Ants too.

And then I went to visit the Holm Oak (Quercus ilex).
Do you remember? I nearly chose it as 'my' tree-following tree. We've had a wet and wild winter. Over one night, this tree had to endure nigh on a hurricane force, salt laden wind. It's leaves are supposed to be ever green. Look at it now.

The light of evening was patchy. The lowering sun was tinging the Alexanders and dead gorse with a warmer glow than they'd shown in the morning. But these leaves . . . these leaves are not just being caught in a golden light. They are beautiful. But they are dying.

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When looking for the spelling for Puccinia smyrnii I came across APHOTOFUNGI - photographs of fungi found in South West England, especially Devon and Cornwall. Devon is the next county along going west from Dorset (where I live) but even if the collection on APHOTOFUNGI had been photographs from another continent I would have enjoyed browsing the site. You might too so I've added it to the Loose and Leafy page of internet places you might go for help with identification. The list is random; sites I come across by chance and like - and remember to put there!

And a note about Tree Following - it's never too late to join the growing list of participants. (72 to date.)

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