13 Sunday Nov 2022
‘Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar. Reflecting sunlight, they swirled and sailed and fluttered on the wind drafts.’ ~ from Where the crawdads sing, Delia Owens, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 2018
09 Saturday Nov 2019
Tags
autumn, autumn at Forest Farm, autumn colour, autumn leaves, autumn trees, Forest Farm Nature Reserve
Here are some of the colours of autumn from my walk around Forest Farm Nature Reserve yesterday. It was magical!
18 Sunday Nov 2018
When anyone asks me what my favourite season is I can never decide because they each have their good points but, this year, our late-arriving autumn has certainly been magnificent. On Wednesday I caught the train to Radyr for a meander around Forest Farm Nature Reserve and it was sublime. From bright golden yellows to rustling red-browns, with some leaves still decorating spreading branches above my head and others carpeting the woodland floor beneath my feet, I spent a marvellous day, my eyes admiring, my feet kicking, my neck craning and all my senses spilling over. Ah, autumn!
21 Sunday Oct 2018
Tags
autumn, autumn colour, beautiful trees, Bute Park, Bute Park's trees, photographing trees, walk in the park
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I spent several hours of a glorious autumnal Friday wandering amongst the trees in Cardiff’s Bute Park, and it was wonderful. I love trees and this meander reminded me why – their myriad different shapes and sizes, the variety of colours and textures in their leaves and their bark, and how difficult it is to capture all those qualities well in photographs. Since 2015, the year I spent photographing a tree each and every single day, I find I’m a little out of practice. I haven’t decided on next year’s project yet so maybe …
15 Friday Dec 2017
Autumn always seems to go by far too quickly. I don’t get to see all the trees I really want to see and then I forget to share the trees I have seen. Hmmm, maybe that’s old age creeping up on me. All the more reason to wind back the clock a month and enjoy a little extra autumn colour.
12 Sunday Nov 2017
There is so much to love about autumn: it’s as if Nature is an award-winning play, and all the trees are her actors. She’s coming to the end of another successful season, it’s the last grand finale, the players are dressed in magnificent richly coloured costumes ready to take their final bows before a rapturous audience amidst great critical acclaim … and then the curtain comes down for another year.
02 Thursday Nov 2017
‘I am rich today with autumn’s gold.’ ~ Gladys Harp
15 Sunday Oct 2017
Tags
autumn, autumn migration, birding, birdwatching, Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Grangemoor Park, migrant birds, Saxicola torquata, Stonechat
Meet the Stonechat (Saxicola torquata), the bird whose song sounds like two pebbles being rapped together, hence its common name.
These little birds, about the size of your average Robin, usually live a little north of where I live in south Wales, preferring the plantations of conifers that grow in the Welsh valleys and the heathland of the Brecon Beacons. But, come the cooler temperatures of autumn they begin to move south to over-winter in slightly warmer climes.
I saw my first local bird at the Cardiff Bay Wetland Reserve on 17 September, a pair at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on 6 October, and then a solitary female at Grangemoor Park last Sunday, 8 October.
Stonechats are not always easy to spot, as they duck down amongst tall grass and wildflowers in their search for insects and seeds, and their colours act as good camouflage. But, luckily, they also have a habit of perching on the tops of those grasses and wildflowers and on low shrubs so they can keep an eye out for threats – and humans with cameras! – so I have managed to get a few distant photos.
27 Sunday Nov 2016
‘Cardiff Dreaming’
All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I’ve been for a walk
On an autumn day
(with apologies to The Mamas and Papas for degrading their lyrics)
Are you singing along?
20 Sunday Dec 2015
Posted in fungi, nature, nature photography
I was living in Auckland, New Zealand, when I first spotted one of these mushrooms and I admit to having had a ‘wow’ moment. It was like walking into a fairytale … I half expected fairies and elves to emerge and perform a magical dance amongst the leaf litter. This is, after all, the classic what-every-kid-would-draw-if-you-asked-them mushroom.
The Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria), also known as the Fly amanita and the Scarlet flycap, isn’t native to New Zealand but was unintentionally introduced there due to its rather intimate relationship with pine trees. Since its arrival, it has been quite wanton and, as it has now begun forming relationships with native trees, to the detriment of native fungi, it is considered a pest.
On the left, a young mushroom; on the right, an aging specimen
As the flesh of the Fly agaric contains psychoactive substances it has been used for centuries in religious and shamanistic rituals in Asia and parts of northern Europe. This fungus is, however, classified as poisonous, so forget the hallucinogenic adventure and feast with your eyes only!
earthstar 
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