Wet autumn woodland

We recently had a walk in the Forest of Dean after quite a bit of rain had fallen. The trees had given up more leaves to the deluges but, nonetheless, more remained firmly fixed to branches than is usual for the time of year. It was slippery underfoot and water droplets twinkled in the sunlight that pierced the tree canopy. The dead and dying bracken looked bright orange as we walked towards the sun but the tree ferns remained resolutely green. Our route took us through Nagshead Plantation, an area that includes an RSPB reserve. Everywhere we looked it seemed there was a competition between the oak and the beech for which had the best leaf display. For me the beech was winning.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn rivulet, Llanfoist

Is a water course as small as the one shown in this photograph eligible for the name "stream" or should it be called something different? I tend to think of streams as a something more substantial than this, often being features that attract specific names. Perhaps this is a rivulet, a rill, a runnel or even a streamlet. It flows down from the Blorenge at Llanfoist, near Abergavenny in Wales. The Ordnance Survey 1:25000 doesn't give it a name but it may be called something in the locality. It was running briskly when I photographed it, catching the plentiful autumn leaves dropping on it from overhanging trees.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The back end of the year

When I lived in Yorkshire I often heard the last month or so of the year referred to as "the back end". The meaning of the phrase is self-explanatory. However, I never heard the beginning of the year referred to as "the front end", only "the new year". When I looked at this photograph it spoke to me of that Yorkshire "back end", a time when it is typically, cold or damp, when shadows are long, the bracken is dying down, and the brief appearance of the low winter sun draws a few more people away from their fire-sides and central heating. Of course, the dog walkers are out whatever the weather and this couple with their four animals, silhouetted against the woodland, made a nice composition for this passing photographer.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Edge of Chase Wood, Ross on Wye

One of our favoured walks takes us through Chase Wood, one of the areas of woodland that crown the two hills behind the town of Ross on Wye. On a recent day, as we pulled ourselves up the steep track by the side of the wood, we stopped to admire the trees growing along its edge and the way they contrasted with the green of the pasture. They seemed to be in their final array of autumn colours and I took this photograph as a reminder of their beauty, something to look at again when they have become the dark skeletons of winter.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn afternoon light

Some of the best light for capturing the colours of autumn can be found in the afternoon. Find the right angle to the sun and you can engineer greater colour saturation and stronger contrast in photographs. In this part of the Forest of Dean the trees, mainly beeches, were showing to great effect as we walked among them.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Stinging nettle

The stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is one of the most common and widespread of British wild plants. It is one of a small number of plants, that includes cow parsley and cleavers (goose grass), that have benefitted from the nitrogenous acid rain that was and still is a feature of industrialisation. Children find its sting a source of pain though to most adults it is merely an irritation. There was a time when the nettle was always in the list of those to be planted or enouraged when making an area more wildlife friendly. However, none of the butterflies for whom it is a major food source are in danger, and it is increasingly the view that we have quite enough nettles and there are other plants more deserving of inclusion. These nettles were part of a group thriving in some woods and once again the light filtering down through the leaf canopy above made the composition.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Woodland bramble

Brambles (also known as blackberries in parts of the UK) are one of the few, widely collected, wild fruits. Pies and crumbles benefit from their taste and colour, as do wines and jams. Anyone who has engaged in this autumn pastime will have noticed that the fruit vary considerably in size and that the largest are usually to be found in a bright, sunny location. This common observation of the variability of brambles is under-pinned by a piece of information that I came across only recently: namely, that in the UK there are approximately 400 recognised microspecies of bramble and probably considerably more. They each differ by one or all of the following: fruiting time, size, texture and taste. The above photograph shows a woodland bramble seeking out light filtering down through the canopy above. When fruit appears on such plants they only rarely compare with plants growing in brightly lit locations.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Autumn becomes winter

The photograph above was taken in Penyard Park woods near Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, on the morning of the first of December, the first day of "meteorological winter". Yellow tinged winter sunlight was penetrating the woods through trees almost stripped of leaves, and still illuminating the conifers, the dying bracken and the leaves of the undergrowth. The orange remnants of autumn together with the sunlight are what elevates the picture. As winter progresses it will be interesting to see if such a photograph is possible before the spring growth appears.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Bracken in morning light

Morning light has the power to make even the most prosaic of subjects something special. When the vigorous plant, bracken, starts to die off in autumn its green fronds go limp and turn brown, orange and black. It looks past it, dishevelled and slowly slumps to the ground, the strong green and symmetrical jaggedness of its maturity gone. But, when seen with a low, late autumn sun behind it the dank vegetation comes alive and it exhibits a dark, marmalade glow.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Old woodland shed

We came across this old corrugated metal shed by the side of the path in woodland at Great Doward. It was near a couple of other sheds, one of which was built against the face of a limestone cliff. I imagine they date from the time when limestone was quarried at this location. All of them were slowly succumbing to the ravages of weather and plants, but must have many more years of decay ahead of them.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Young beech trees

England's "King of Trees" is the oak, its consort being the "Queen of Trees", the beech. The beech is a long-lived species and naturally occurs in the British Isles in south east England and south east Wales. It prefers well drained soils, and particularly those on chalk and limestone. However, such is the beauty and utility of the tree, it is now found in many areas of our islands. In Herefordshire and elsewhere I have noticed its liking for slopes, presumably because they drain quickly. These examples are relatively young beech trees and the area in which they are growing exhibits another feature of the species - they suppress the growth of the woodland floor suffering only the most persistent plants to thrive beneath their canopy.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Woodland track

Currently the woodland track that crosses Coppett Hill, above Goodrich in Herefordshire, is bordered with bluebells. At least that is the case in the areas where the trees are well-spaced and sufficient light has penetrated to the grass below. In these parts it has something of the character of heathland with the occasional hawthorn so heavily laden with blossom it almost looks like there has been a recent snowfall. I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales where "bluebell woods" were known and celebrated. In the part of the Marches where I now reside bluebells are more widespread and even give areas of open grassland a blue hue, as was the case a couple of weeks ago when we ascended May Hill in Gloucestershire.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100