Daily Post – Weekly Photo Challenge…..GREEN

A Giant Palm in the Pavilion Glasshouse…… 

I suppose Green is perhaps the most common of colours we encounter in our daily lives and travel…

A suggestion for this Weeks Photo Challenge – It is easy being Green.

See what others have suggested on:- https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/it-is-easy-being-green/

via Photo Challenge: It IS Easy Being Green!

23rd March

(C) David Oakes 2017

Contrasts of Autumn…

A Majestic Oak

Friday was all sunshine till dusk when heavy rain and sleet whipped up by a strong North Easterly wind arrived.  So it was more than a surprise to wake this Saturday to a gin clear blue sky, the remnants of a shallow frost and sunshine that did its very best to lift the temperature to a maximum of 6c at midday.

The wind and frost had taken its toll in the woods but the Oak as is its style remains fully in leaf…even though they now have a distinct brown and gold colour. Frost lingered awhile in the shadows, the floor is thick with leaves and the Birch now bare

But Fungi now arrives to add another dimension to autumn…

Fungi has so far been scarce this year, I think the unseasonal dry and warm  weather had discouraged it. But overnight a touch of magic on this old stump now covered in little umbrella mushrooms.

Down by the Lake a lone Copper Beech brightens up a shady corner…may be the last fling of it’s  autumn….

So winter draws ever closer….but just think that in 25 days time we will pass the winter solstice and the days start to become longer as the sun begins its climb back towards spring and summer once again.

20th November

(C) David Oakes 2016

Some November Colours…..

Another Bonus day down by the Lake

2nd November arrived and with it the first frost of the year. I am told that it  was quite a thick frost but by the time my eyelids had opened it had vanished. It has though had an effect on the trees.  There is much more colour but sadly many leaves have just dropped…..notably my two favourite Ash Trees have  lost just about all their leaves overnight…soon they will just be skeletons..

Lakeside positively glowed this morning, the dark waters reflecting not just the dark blue of the early morning sky but the multicolours of the trees…

Not sure that the sycamore are going to turn yellow and gold as would be their normal plan but instead just drop everything to be trampled underfoot. The Horse Chestnut whilst slow to turn is still keeping to traditional display of brown and golds

But as the morning moved along wispy white clouds started to drift in and as its way remained with us till dusk…..but not a big problem as that gorgeous sunshine still kept breaking through

Just a note on temperatures.  Monday we basked in 17c, some paces enjoyed 22c midday to day it reached the days maximum of 7c. The promise is for colder weather for the rest of the week.

3rd November

(C) David Oakes 2016

Fall Backwards……..

Sundown over Derbyshire

Once the sun has set tonight we can mark the passing of another milestone in the annual cycle of seasonal events. We have to reset our clocks and watches…back by one hour so that the UK is back on good old GMT…..British Summer Time is over  till the 26th March 2017.

I think that this year we will notice the change in more ways than one.  The days are getting shorter, it will be dark sooner and I am reckoning that the autumn that has yet to come will descend in a rush

29th October

(C) David Oakes 2016

No Change…well very little

Allestree Lake …. Early Morning

Early morning on the 21st October and just a tad more colour hinting that autumn is on the way…..summer isn’t going anywhere without a fight. To prove the point the Ash trees and the meadows plus the countryside beyond are still lush green, still glowing despite some possible storm clouds….

There is some colour in the hedgerow courtesy of an imposter, the American Rufus Oak

 

Not to be out done the Russian Vine is competing for the honour of being the reddest kid on the block….

22nd October

(C) David Oakes 2016