Well on the Way to Autumn

Scenic Sundays #33

Another summer has gone and winter is just round the bend...

Water Worn Post

Fencepost of the Week #43

Hawthorn Shield Bug

Wildlife Wednesday #35

The word bugs - when used technically - refers to a couple of groups of insects all of which have syringe-like mouthparts that they use to suck food out of things - mostly plants, but in some cases animals. The hawthorn shield bug usually sucks hawthorns...

Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale - Hawthorn Shield Bug

Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale - Hawthorn Shield Bug

Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale - Hawthorn Shield Bug

Bernice Larches

Tree-fetish Tuesday #28

The beautiful victorian plantings around Bernice on the shore of Loch Eck on a cold, bright winter's day.

Gibbous Bracket

Monday Mushroom #33

The gibbous bracket - a largish, white bracket fungus of rotting long-dead timber. These photos were taken in winter, and there is a layer of ice on top of each bracket.

Trametes gibbosa - Gibbous Bracket

Like many long-lived white fungi, the gibbous bracket is often colonised by algae - responsible for the green flush on these fruiting bodies.

Trametes gibbosa - Gibbous Bracket

Rough-Hewn Amberley

Fencepost of the Week #42

A mossy timber fence from a horse field in Amberley - a picturesque village that seems determined to single handedly keep the thatching trade alive and in Sussex.

 I might have taken more pictures of the beautiful country cottages or the sprawling castle and ancient church, but I was too foucused on looking for nice fenceposts.

Great Pond Snails

Wildlife Wednesday #34

Lymnaea stagnalis - Great Pond Snails

Lymnaea stagnalis - Great Pond Snails

Lymnaea stagnalis - Great Pond Snails

Red Acer

Tree-fetish Tuesday #27

Covered in Honey Fungus

Monday Mushroom #32

A collapsed, rather moribund birch tree being engulfed by honey fungus.

Armillaria mellea - Honey Fungus

Armillaria mellea - Honey fungus

Caburn Hillfort Sunrise

Scenic Sundays #32

The Brighton & Hove Ramblers had a sunrise walk yesterday - we ascended Caburn Hillfort under a starry sky to watch the sun rise over Glynde.

 

Maritime Grip

Fencepost of the Week #41

Another groyne from Winchelsea beach.

Roesel's Bushcricket

Wildlife Wednesday #33

Metrioptera roeselii - Roesel's Bushcricket (male)

Metrioptera roeselii - Roesel's Bushcricket (female)

Staghorn Sumac

Tree-fetish Tuesday #26

Rhus typhina - Staghorn Sumac

This is an exotic looking little tree, growing in gardens all over England. It originates from eastern north America. The fuzzy, red drupes have a taste rather like sherbet, and can be used to make a kind of pink lemonade.

They are also very useful for dyers - yielding several different pigments and a mordant as well.

Wire Coils

Fencepost of the Week #40

Ravens in Flight

Wildife Wednesday #32

Alder Island

Tree-fetish Tuesday #25

Alder trees seem to love water more than any other British tree. Here is an island in a sea of duckweed, made from the rotten stump of an old alder tree now with a flourishing forest of new growth.

Beautiful glossy leaves, alders grow fast colonising poor waterlogged soils. They grow quickly but are relatively short-lived trees, collapsing as the heartwood rots. Though often sprouting anew from the stump.

Alder leaves against a background of fast-flowing, peaty water - a familiar sight to many from alders clinging to river banks all up and down the country.

Green Elfcup

Monday Mushroom #31

The green elfcup - one of my favourite mushrooms due to the distincitve colour. The main body of the fungus grows through dead wood staining it a deep blue-green colour - you can often find bits of infected wood at any time of the year, but the fruiting bodies are short lived and rarely seen.

Chlorosplenium aeruginascens - Green Elfcup

 These elfcups are not yet fully developed - they will grow to about twice this size (up to about 1.5cm diameter) and the margin will unroll until they are flat on top.

Chlorosplenium aeruginascens - Green Elfcup

Clearance

Scenic Sundays #31

One of the many crofting townships that did not sourvive the highland clearances. This one is a little south of Dervaig on the the Isle of Mull. You can click on the image to get a slightly bigger version...