LEAVES, SEEDS AND FLOWERS

Just as human seeds contain within them the imprint and hope of a being yet to form, the seeds of seasons are mirrored and grown in every month of the year. Spring holds the beginning of autumn and autumn is torn between memories of summer past and spring to come. It's a mixture of natural cycle and muddle.

I'd say a blackberry flower is muddled when it turns up just as the cold is kicking in.

That chicory flowers are like enthusiastic teenagers, determined to enjoy the party right to the very last minute.

That buddleia bushes and trees show a wonderful confidence in producing new starts of leaves just as their flowers are turning from lilac and purple to dingy dark brown.

That the seeds of wild clematis - Old Man's Beard - flamboyantly flaunt beauty in the face of their own aging and knowingly turn their faces from the inevitable. Their glorious champagne fizz and froth will soon sink into grey, Miss Havishamesk, dusty decrepitude. Fresh snow is lovely when it falls but when it has been trampled and fouled it's . . . well it's not as nice as when it was new. Ditto Old Man's Beard.

BEWITCHED BY BLUE

Chicory Flowers

I could do nothing but post about chicory.

Here it grows up to about four foot high.

Hoverfly on Chicory Flower

I am not the only one who loves it.

Bee on Chicory Flower

Though my admiration does not extend to bathing in its pollen.

Willow Herb

There's a lot of blue and pink and purple around at the moment. The sky switches between blue and grey. If you look into sun-glare, it looks quite dramatic.

Except for leaves dropping from the tree in the autumn,
new ones arriving in sprin
and growing again through the summer,
this view stays much the same through the year.

This is looking up to where these plants grow.

I'm pretty much alone . . . but not quite . . . look behind me and a solitary herring gull swims away.

Tweet