A Few Autumn Memories

30 Thu Nov 2017

Tags

'Canary Bird' rose, autumn, autumn leaves, Cotinus, goldfinch nest, harvest festival, harvest moon, Mahonia, oriental poppy, photographs, rainbow, red admiral butterfly, Rumburgh Church, Suffolk, sunsets, viburnum bodnantense, winter-flowering honeysuckle

A mini rainbow seen on a breezy day in September.

I have a few photographs of things I’ve seen this autumn dating from the beginning of September until mid October. I thought I’d make a post of them all.

A sunset seen from our back garden – again in September.

This photograph of the harvest moon at the beginning of October was taken in Norwich by Richard.

A Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) nest in our Greengage tree.

Once some of the leaves had fallen from the tree it was easier to see the nest which, when it was occupied, prevented us from harvesting our greengages until it was almost too late. Moss, grasses, feathers and cobwebs have been used as well as green plastic garden twine. The nest has been anchored to the branches of the tree by stouter grasses.

A Red Admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) sunning itself.

Our church at Rumburgh, decorated for Harvest Festival

Richard and I collected all the fruit and vegetables the next day and delivered them to a local nursing home where they were very gratefully received.

Another sunset

I love the dark purples and greys with the slash of bright yellow cutting through

Autumn colour in October

These Elder ( Sambucus nigra) leaves have lost nearly all their colour and have become almost luminous

Cherry tree leaves in our garden

Yet another sunset!

A late and rather battered oriental poppy

The almond-scented flowers of Viburnum bodnantense

Mahonia flowers smell like lily-of-the-valley.

I like to have late autumn, winter and early spring flowering plants. On milder days when the wind isn’t too strong, their scent can be so welcome. The insects, especially the bumble-bees, enjoy the flowers too!

Winter-flowering Honeysuckle

This ‘Canary Bird’ rose is one of the first to flower in early summer. It decided to flower again in October.

The Cotinus leaves were very attractive

I’m sorry but here is one more sunset! This was the colourful one caused by storm Ophelia and the smoke pollution from the forest fires in Portugal.

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My music choice today is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing ‘Herbst’ (Autumn) by Franz Schubert. Here is a link to a translation into English of the lyrics.

Thanks for visiting!

This and That – Part 1

03 Fri Jun 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees, weather, wild birds

≈ 70 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, blackbird, blackthorn, bluebell, countryside, cowslip, daffodils, English Elm, English Oak, garden, Goat Willow, green woodpecker, greengage, horse chestnut, Lords and Ladies, Marxh-marigold, pheasant, photography, rainbow, Red Deer, shrubs, Snowy Mespil, Suffolk, trees, white dead-nettle, wild cherry, wild flowers

I have taken a number of photographs over the last few weeks but haven’t had the time to write any posts. Here are a few of the better pictures from April and earlier.

Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)

Back in January I was driving home from shopping when I saw this small group of five Red Deer making their way across a field towards the road. I had to slow down and then stop because I could see that they were not only made nervous by my car but their usual path was blocked by a fire someone had lit to get rid of brushwood. They eventually managed to cross the lane a little further along and then carried on their way. I took a photo of them through the car window and this is the result – heavily cropped. I had thought that I had missed them and it was only when I eventually looked carefully at the shot on my computer a few weeks ago I realised that they were there!

The Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) family wandering through the garden at the beginning of April.

This is such an untidy photo with the recycling bin out by the roadside and my former car in the way too. This is another photo taken through glass (the kitchen window this time – you can see a reflection in the bottom left corner of the picture). We haven’t seen the pheasants for a while now so I presume the females are busy on their nests.

We had a storm with heavy rain and then the sun came out. It all looked so bright and fresh, so I stood at the front door and took three photos, to the left, straight ahead and to the right.

A few days later I stood at the end of the drive and took this photo of the ditch that runs along the edge of the garden. We have daffodils growing all along its length. The lane runs parallel with the front of our property. You can also see my new car in this picture.

Pussy Willow / Goat Willow (Salix caprea)

Goat Willow in flower

Cowslips (Primula veris)

A stormy sky. A photo of our house (and the house next door) taken standing next to our big pond and looking across the corner of the field.

The summerhouse

A Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) looking for ants in the lawn

I was quite pleased with this photo as it showed all the different colours of its feathers, even the black and white spotted feathers under the wings. This is a female adult as the moustachial feathers are all black. The male has a crimson centre to the stripe.

A male Blackbird (Turdus merula) was also on the lawn looking for food.

White Dead-nettle (Lamium album)

Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium)

The first Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) flower in our garden this spring

There is nothing quite like the scent of Bluebells. They are wild hyacinths but don’t have the cloying scent of the garden variety. There is a sweet freshness that lifts the spirits and is irrevocably linked, to my mind, with birdsong, sunshine after rain and hope.

Greengage blossom (Prunus domestica ssp. italica). I hope we have some fruit this year.

Some of the Cowslips in our garden are orange and red.

Pendunculate / English Oak (Quercus robur). New leaves and flowers (catkins) appear at the same time.

Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris). I found it impossible to photograph this bright yellow flower well.

More Marsh-marigold

New Horse-chestnut leaves and flower buds (Aesculus hippocastanum)

Beautiful new English Elm leaves (Ulmus procera). We have a number of small Elm trees in our garden. Sadly they will only live for a few years before they succumb to Dutch Elm disease.

Lords and Ladies / Jack-in-the-pulpit / Cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum). This plant has many names. Its arrowhead-shaped leaves are often dark spotted.

Snowy Mespil (Amelanchier canadensis) blossom

Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa). This poor photo is the only image of this year’s blossom I managed to get.

A rainbow behind the trees

All these photos were taken in April and in my garden, except the first one.

I find I haven’t made a music selection for a while so this post’s choice is ‘Let’s Work Together’ by Canned Heat. Excellent lyrics, great tune and the best tempo ever!

Thanks for visiting!

The Sky at Night

21 Wed May 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Rural Diary, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

clouds, evening, Rain, rainbow, sunset, sunshine

The following photos are ones I took this evening. We have had a cloudy day today but much better than forecast because the predicted rain didn’t come until late afternoon and then it was fairly light and patchy. It is now 10.30 at night and I can hear that the rain has now become much heavier and we have had a little thunder too.

A Rainbow.

A Sunset.

The rainbow and sunset happened concurrently so you must imagine me photographing the rainbow at the front of the house and then running to the back of the house to take photos of the sunset. I was upstairs and downstairs and outside too so I have had plenty of exercise.