Natural chintz?

Chintz is the name given to a completely, or mainly, floral fabric. The origins of the this type of decorative textile, and the word that describes it originates in Hyderabad, India. It was appropriated and modified by western designers and has drifted in and out of fashion over the years. As we walked by a small stream under trees and bushes I saw clusters of leaves against browns and blues that reminded me of chintz so I took this shot.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P950

Late autumn colour

click photo to enlarge
On a recent walk in the Forest of Dean we noted how most deciduous trees had lost a lot of leaf in a relatively few days. This autumn, in my part of the world, has been relatively calm and mild, but change was in the offing as we walked through the oaks and pines near the Speech House. Here, once again it was the fiery oranges and golds of the beech trees that caught the eye.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Ornamental oaks

Britain's two native species of oak are the English Oak (Quercus robur) and the Sessile Oak (Quercus petraea). Both are relatively widespread, are often long-lived and have suffered greatly at the forester's axe. Today they are particularly prized for the great conribution they make to the richness of nature in the areas where they are found. More oaks were introduced into Britain following the exploration of North America, and decorative species such as the Red Oak (Quercus borealis), Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea) and Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) can now be found in parkland, large gardens and some woodlands. The leaves in the photograph above are on one of these non-native oaks.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Autumn acer leaves

There isn't a season (winter, of course, excepted) when an acer tree doesn't have a show of beautiful leaves. In previous gardens we have had a few acers; in the present garden just the one. But this solitary specimen has beautiful red leaves in spring, foliage that goes well with a blue sky, and a fine mixture of orange and greens in autumn that even that season's ravages of insects, wind and rain cannot dull.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Autumn cyclamen

In the corners of gardens and in church yards are there are currently pockets of pink - the autumn cyclamen are in flower. They are often in the place where spring crocuses flowered and the cyclamen might be taken for a last "hurrah" of summer. But I prefer to see them as an early sign of autumn because they are usually accompanied by dead leaves that have fallen from the sheltering trees.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Camellia bloom

People with little interest in gardening frequently mistake the Camellia for a rose. There are some similarities: the flower is like the red/pink roses and its petals are somewhat similar. The strong, shiny leaves can remind one of roses that have foliage of that sort. However, the Camellia flowers early in spring when most self-respecting roses are dormant. In fact, the Camellia's flowers are often damaged by early frost. That has happened this year when many have flowered a full four weeks earlier than usual.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Domestic 2

The material in this photograph is part of a panel of stitching on a duvet cover. I've always liked this feature since it looks quite different in daylight compared to its appearance in artificial light. It's the sort of embroidery that puts one in mind of medieval and early Renaissance needlework. Until you look closely that is, when you will then make out the back and forthmovement of a powered needle following and making the pattern of leaves and flowers.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Raindrops on purple sage

I've featured purple sage on the blog before. Unsurprisingly it's a plant I like a lot. But I have to say that I like it best in summer when it is flourishing and showing off its subtle colours and bushy growth to best effect. The photograph above shows one of our plants after drizzle of the sort that usually keeps me indoors. As I drew the car out of the garage I noticed the effects of the droplets on the leaves and I took this photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Water surface semi-abstract

There is often a disconnect between what the eye sees when looking at water and what the camera sees. This happens most frequently when a high shutter speed freezes the movement of water or a deliberately slow shutter speed blurs it. Today's example does neither of these things. Rather, the meniscus effect of leaves touching the water surface and the reflections are emphasised, revealing a quite pleasing semi-abstract effect that wasn't easy to see with the naked eye.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Town Trail, Ross on Wye

In the 1960s a large section of Britain's railways network was declared surplus to need. The tracks that faced the axe were, in the main, rural lines or those where passenger traffic was sparse. The metal rails were taken up and the land on which they lay faced a number of new uses. One of the best was conversion into a public footpath and cycle track. Today's photograph was taken on one such at Ross on Wye, Herefordshire. Here the Town Trail passes along the edge of the built-up area and offers a quiet and leafy route fror walkers and cyclists.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Complementary colours

On a simple colour wheel blue is the complementary of orange. On a wheel with double the complementaries blue-green is the complementary of red-orange. These are both pairings for which I have a liking. So it wasn't a surprise that I should stop by an old blue-green door in a garden wall made of orange brick with Boston Ivy that was starting to acquire its autumn colours and take this photograph.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Another green man

During our visits to historic churches we often come across a green man. These carvings, usually in stone or wood, of a head surrounded with leaves, look decidedly un-Christian and that may well be the case - it wasn't unknown for early Christianity to embrace aspects of what were probably pagan customs. The green man is thought to be a symbol of rebirth, a feature that is both pagan and central to the Christian religion. The earliest examples of such heads seem to post-date the birth of Chritianity and are most common in the Romanesque and Gothic periods. There has been a resurgence of the green man in recent years that has nothing to do with religion or paganism. They can be widely found on sale as garden ornaments, which is the case with the one shown above.

Weather vane and autumn leaves

This weather vane has featured in one of my blog photographs before. It is on a building in Ross on Wye that was originally a church, then became an antiques shop and is now a collection of flats (apartments). I was drawn to the subject by its close visual juxtaposition with the top of a tree that had turned red for autumn.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Two Hereford views revisited

There are photographers who, on principle, take a picture of a view or other subject once only. More common are those who revisit locations looking to get a better shot. Time of day, time of year, type of weather and other factors make such an undertaking quite rewarding. I'm firmly of the second camp. Here are two views in Hereford that I have posted once and photographed several times. The first shows a statue of Edward Elgar (with bicycle) looking at the cathedral. The second image features an interesting house called "The Fosse". Both take advantage of autumn leaves.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Wet autumn leaves

Regular spells of useful rain are now following our dry summer and early autumn, and the leaves are steadily falling from the trees. A walk in the Forest of Dean found us tramping through carpets of assorted leaves that still glistened from a recent downpour. The low morning sun illuminated them quite nicely adding shadows and bright points to the subtle colours, inviting a photograph.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

The brightest autumn leaves?

I imagine that if people were asked to name the leaves that produced the brightest colours in autumn most would mention the Acer, a tree that has been bred specifically to produce colourful leaves. However, this autumn, though I've photographed my share of Acers, I've also come across a leaf that could well be brighter than the brightest acer. I don't know the variety of Cotinus (also known as Smoke Bush) shown above, but I do know that its leaves "out-glow" most Acers. I came across this one growing behind a school fence, stretching towards the pavement seeking light.

 photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Maple leaves in August

Recently I stood and looked at the maple tree in the corner of our garden. Like many plants in this exceptionally dry summer it is looking a little distressed. The absence of rain, the high temperatures, the clear blue skies and the regular, strong and drying winds have all taken their toll. And yet, standing below the branches and looking upwards through the leaves there was still plenty to delight the eye - subtle complementary colours, delicate outlines, cellular details, overlapping shapes and deep shadows. So, I mounted a macro lens on a camera and took a few shots before any further deterioration set in.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Cherry tree leaves

One of the houses we have lived in had several cherry trees. Most were ornamental species and if they did produce cherries they were mostly small fruit. One tree sometimes had larger cherries to the delight of the local blackbirds. However, what all of them did produce in abundance was colourful autumn leaves. The depth of the autumn colour reflected the weather of the growing season, but more often than not they had leaves of a brightness rivalled only by the acers. Walking through the park in Great Malvern recently we came across a cherry tree with deep red, orange and yellow leaves, probably as bright as they ever get.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

More autumn acers

Gardeners generally call the Acer genus of trees and shrubs by their Latin name: to the layman they are more often "maples". The distribution of the 132 species extends across Asia, Europe, North Africa and North America. Only one species is found in the southern hemisphere.

 In the UK the most common Acer or maple is a the sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), a tree that foresters often describe as a weed species. However, such is the popularity of the ornamental acers they can be found growing in the wild having escaped the confines of gardens and country estates. The examples in this post were photographed at Westonbirt National Arboretum in Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Autumn acers

The Acer family of trees are renowned for their colours in spring and autumn. Consequently they have been the subject of breeding programs that have sought to extend and deepen the range of colours that they can produce and also broaden the shape and size of their leaves. The three photographs today were taken at Westonbirt, the National Arboretum near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, that has a fine collection of these trees.

 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10