early autumn

the trees in the Tamar valley are showing the first signs of the leaves turning brown.

still no fungi, very few flowers and one solitary dipper.

Kit Hill quarry

there has been very little to photograph recently and for various reasons I haven't been out as much, so I am going to trawl through my archives for photos taken at the same time of year (within a week) to keep the blog changing at least until November when it will have been up for two years. Last year at this time the woods were full of mushrooms, this year there are very few as yet. Kit Hill quarry has always provided me with a wealth of image material because of the wonderful interplay between the colours in the rocks, the wildflowers and the restless surface of the water creating natural impressionist paintings. My favourite image is of swallows dipping into the water when it is absolutely still and squeaking with ?excitement/pleasure, but I have yet to capture it to my satisfaction. Next year maybe. I like that sense that things will return in the great cycle of life even as the autumnal gloom descends.

house guests

as the summer ends the large spiders are coming back indoors to frighten those of a nervous disposition. Close up and not squashed they are a marvel of natural engineering.

a good year for apples

a crab apple tree in the woods bearing a very heavy crop of apples. Our own apple trees are cropping very well with sweet unblemished fruit.

buzzards

buzzards are usually seen gliding with wings outstretched, but they find it hard to get going from a standing start.

harriet is right here

by special request, Harriet on her early morning trouble finding escapade.

autumn mornings II

on Kit Hill, looking northwards down the spoil pile towards Stoke Climsland.

autumn mornings

early morning, a misty day with the sun rising over Hingston down, Dartmoor on the horizon.

webs

... and so last night we captured a holly bush, bound it in gossamer and waited for the sun to rise.

late flowering

and to add to an earlier post (see Comfrey below) here is a very fresh alkanet flowering in September.

nipplewort

OK, this isn't a very thrilling blog but my eye is always caught by Nature's little intricacies, all that hard work and design. A green finch flew into one of our windows yesterday, killing itself. What is so striking about birds when examined very closely, is the sheer beauty of the feathers, down to the smallest details. It is so hard to be a very strict Darwinian when one's heart yearns for a designer. Dogs are, if I may be FRANK for a moment, an example of the very best of the designer's handicraft.

mellow

crab apples (?) on Rowden lane; we are having the mists but the fruit is not mellow quite just yet.

autumn is coming

the lanes are just beginning to turn brown as autumn starts. Spot apologises for the lack of posts but his photographer has been indisposed recently.