HOLIDAY SNAPS

I was going. I was not going. Then I was. Now I'm back.

The chance came up to go back to the Brecon Beacons - this time to the North side of the National Park. And it rained. Again. Of course.

There was an afternoon when the sun shined. I noticed some good views in passing. I would return.

But it rained.

But there are always things to notice when the sun comes out between showers.

Like shadows. (Of foxglove?)

And views through barns.

Where light comes in through slats as well as through open doors.

When they get to the rusty stage, I have trouble distinguishing between sorrel and dock in pictures. I was in a rush at the time or I would have paid attention to the leaves.

There's drama in the morning; and in the evening.

Swifts are gathering on the wires ready for their autumn migration to Africa. Not that they are short of insects to eat yet. Each evening they swished backwards and forwards human-knee-high snatching at insects above the grass.

And that silhouette of a bird in the tree. It looks like a robin to me. What do you reckon? (You might have to enlarge to see.)

And on the wall in an outside loo - an Buff Ermine Moth. (Spilosoma luteum.) One of its antennae is broken.

Now I'm back I'll soon be replying to comments and getting ready to catch up with 'my' tree ready for the Tree Following box on the 7th.

Hope you have been having good holidays - whether in rain or drought or perfect weather.

(There ought to be a selection of greetings to cover the seasons. Why should Christmas hog it all? Happy summer everyone!)

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P.S. A new recommendation. Take a look at this page about the life cycle of butterflies and moths. A breathtaking set of information and pictures. (Includes the caterpillar of a Buff Ermine moth.)

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SPRING AND AUTUMN - CAN WE TELL THE DIFFERENCE?

Always, at this time of year, I go looking for what's left of autumn.

Usually, this means taking photos of leaves which have survived the winter, disintegrated flowers that never fell. That kind of thing. It's my version of spring cleaning.

And, as usual, at the moment I chose (which is another way of saying the only one I had available) the weather was dull. I fiddled around a bit, trying to make visible for the blog things which my eyes could barely make out in the gloom. Not a great success! So I turned the camera round the other way and decided on silhouettes instead. It was only when I got home and looked at the results that I decided the shapes I like so much weren't, on this occasion, the most interesting things there. What I had been seeing as the old stuff was really the new stuff held back from autumn and made ready and ripe for the spring. (Wonderfully scientific language on Loose and Leafy!)

I'd previously thought of dessicated blackberries as the fruits summer forgot.

I'd seen old willow herb shapes as just that - shapes left from when seeds fell.

Now, now, I see them as the winter's hoard - not for birds to eat, though with some, like teasels, this is indeed a side effect, but as plant's packets of seeds, ready to sow in the spring - and they've begun sowing.

This should not have been as much a revelation as it was. But that's the advantage of being ignorant. The pleasure when one's eyes open is immense.

Some Alexanders still have seeds in reserve.

Others  have let them all go.

Old Man's Beard (wild clematis) tends to look pretty euchy by now. The deliciously white fluff of autumn has turned into dirty gray drifts of ancient cotton wool - the kind left behind by the dustmen.

But, kept safe in the mess, the seeds are opening and dropping. They are tiny. Smaller than tomato pips.

And prickly balls of burdock are opening to release theirs.

See them? Quite large and lumpy inside.

Isn't autumn wonderful to save some of itself for spring?

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All pictures were taken on 16th February 2013

Last year's post looking at the year before's leaves.

Silhouettes in January 2011

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