Autumn Series 02

These two Autumn images feature some more advanced colours than the Autumn Series 01 post, with reds and browns much more dominant before the wintry weather this December finally caused the leaves to drop.

The field maple, an early starter when it comes to Autumn, had already lost many of its leaves in the photograph above, yet the remaining leaves show beautiful shades of colour and a classic maple shape against the sky. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the beech tree in the shot below either, as the canopy displayed an extraordinary range of colours at once, and the very vibrant red leaves saw an echo in the rusty red lichens on the trunk.

With some gusty Winter weather now here (some parts of Britain could experience gusts of up to 144km/h as storms hit today and tomorrow), it seems that will be all for the Autumn series for 2013. If forecasters are right about snow warnings though, we could be in for a very White Christmas indeed!

Autumn Series 01

 

 Autumn is lingering this year; it is nearly December and there are still leaves on the trees, developing richer colours. The warm Summer and mild Autumn this year were reason enough to expect a spectacular display of Autumn colours (read more about why leaves change colour in an interesting Guardian article here), and it seems the trees have not disappointed. Trees such as horse chestnut, sweet chestnut and field maple led the way with some early yellows and oranges, whilst even the late developers are now getting into the swing of things. Between them the trees are displaying a dazzling variety of colours including golden, russet, amber and fawn.

The two photos featured here were taken in the beautiful Danbury Woods in Essex. The sweet chestnut tree in the photo above originally began with a juxtaposition of green, caramel and coffee coloured leaves, but later in the season the leaves are almost all a soft caramel yellow - the browner leaves falling away, whilst the green leaves have finally succumbed to Autumn. The vibrant chestnut tree is framed in the photo by the dead wood of an enormous fallen tree. This dead wood has incredible texture and subtle colouring, providing a pleasing contrast to the chestnut tree in the background.

The photo below shows the amber-orange foliage of a field maple, with sugars in the leaves beginning to develop red pigments. If we continue with Autumn sunshine and temperatures above freezing we should eventually reach the deep red colours that we rarely see in in years with wet and cloudy Autumns or after frosts.

Keep your eyes open for more pictures to follow in the Autumn series!

Ferns & Forest Encounter

This branch of bracken shows some lovely autumnal colours. I remember taking this quite vividly; a damp morning last October, very quiet, in Epping Forest. As I was focussing on the ferns below me and getting some photos of their colours, a sound caught my attention. A fallow deer had trotted along the path, then skidded to a stop as it must have caught my scent - yet surprised and unsure of exactly where I was standing because I was wearing greens and browns as is often my wont! I was just as surprised, and with my camera focussed on the ferns below me, unprepared to take a shot of the deer before it dashed off again. So, I was left with just a shot of the bracken to remind me of the encounter!

Agrarian Veteran

 
I took a turn about the fields in the Chignal Smealy area last Saturday, and managed to capture this photo of a stunning veteran tree. The only way is Essex countryside!

The weather was blustery and cold, and there were dark clouds looming overhead. I thought to capture some photos of the dramatic skies over the fields, but in Winter the arable fields can be quite bare. Then I happened across some charming old trees, or perhaps tree (the trunks may have been part of one coppice stool beneath the soil) beside a ditch. The knobbly, weathered trunk sported some dazzling lichens, a small ray of sunlight on a wintry day. The fresher branches arch out to the left with a delicate drapery of last year's seeds, more keys to the past seasons of growth. This tree had faced many cold Winters, and Summers fair, and I'm sure it had seen much from its position overlooking the agrarian activities of the neighbouring fields.

In Norse mythology, the world sits on an ash tree. The ash, Fraxinus excelsior, sounds rather grand when named in Latin, and indeed it can be a rather grand tree in form. Naturally these trees live to just 250 years or a little beyond, but some of the coppice stools will persist for much longer and some suggest that the older coppiced ash stools may be at least a thousand years old - amongst the oldest living things in Britain. Indeed these trees can be remarkably resilient, bouncing back from disasters like lightning or severe storms, and this can result in some contorted shapes and growth forms. Whilst the trunk itself may only be one or two centuries in age, it is possible that the stool or roots beneath the ground could be far more ancient in these cases. So while the tall maiden Ash trees may be most impressive in size, the more venerable trees may rather be those that have been brought low by men or circumstance.

For those who haven't heard, there is a threat to British ash trees, the Chalara fraxinea fungus or "ash dieback". This was first discovered over here last year, although it has been known in mainland Europe since the 1990s. If the disease has a similar impact in Britain as it has had in Denmark and Sweden, the British countryside could see a change as drastic as that caused by Dutch Elm disease forty to fifty years ago. To read more about ash trees and the Chalara fungus, you can read this Times article and visit this Woodland Trust page.

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