Tuesday 17 December 2013

A touch of winter colour


I've just been for a wander up the hill, and though I didn't push myself, I managed quite well.  It was lovely to see Black mountain with a little flock of clouds drifting above it, and I could just make out the Bronze Age cairns along the ridge stretching back towards the Amman valley.

On the way back down, I picked the above.  From left to right - some lichen from a branch, such a pretty jadecolour though it doesn't show up well here.  Its name escapes me - Em, Ragged Robin?  Below it, amazingly, a Celendine leaf!  Picked at the side of the lane by our paddock and demonstrating it is still quite mild for winter.  Then what must be the last Red Campion of the year.  Then a lemon and lime Ivy leaf with a rosehip at its shoulder, 2 little oak leaves still clinging on to a vestige of green and above them the rosy leaf of Tutsan.  Then two colourful bramble leaves.



A slightly closer picture showing the gorgeous ruby and lemon of the bramble leaf.

A close up of the litchen.

Anyway, I have a dental check up today so I had better make the most of my toothbrush . . .

5 comments:

  1. I think of all the leaves the bramble holds its colour best - we still have many coloured in our hedges.

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  2. Beautiful colours in the leaves especially the bramble :) I'm not sure about the lichen - sorry! It looks like one of the foliose (leafy) ones but not sure which one. Hope Em can help??! I really must buy myself a decent lichen guide just have some FSC booklets but they cover lichens on stone in for example churchyards.

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  3. Wonderful.
    What a lovely walk and all teh treasures you found are beautiful.

    cheers, parsnip

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  4. Parsnip - yes, treasures is what they are. Even now, as they start to dry and curl on my windowsill, they are still things of simple beauty.

    Ragged Robin - I think it may be Flavoparmelia caperata . . . "think". There's lots of that around here anyway, growing flatly on the trees. This once grew around a twig.

    Pat - there's such a monochrome landscape at this time of year, that the colour in the bramble leaves seems even more intense.

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  5. I think the last few days of horrible weather here will have taken the last leaves off the trees and shrubs. Love the lichen.

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