Rowan, the thinker

03 Sunday Nov 2024

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autumn berries, autumn colour, British trees, Celtic Zodiac, Rowan, Rowan berries, Rowan The Thinker

Did you know there is an ancient Celtic zodiac, with trees as the symbols for each of the thirteen (moon-cycle-based, hence thirteen not twelve) signs? I didn’t, until I saw a post on Instagram by the extremely talented artist Luke Adam Hawker, who has just released a series of etchings, one for each of the signs (I wish I could afford to buy the etching for my sign!).

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Along with the tree images he’s been posting, he’s also listed information about the qualities attributed to people born under each sign. The Rowan tree is the symbol for a person born between 21 January and 17 February, summarised as The Thinker, and the qualities they are said to possess are as follows:

Philosophical visionaries with original and creative minds, often misunderstood due to their passionate ideals. Despite a cool exterior, they burn with inner passion, transforming situations and inspiring others with their unique perspectives.

Are you a Thinker? Do you recognise yourself in this description?

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The Rowans in my images, taken at Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery during a recent wander, are lush with berries at the moment, providing welcome fodder for both local birds and the winter thrushes currently arriving from Europe and Scandinavia.

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Dogwood berries

22 Sunday Sep 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants

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autumn berries, autumn colour, Common dogwood, Cornus sanguinea, Cornus sericea, Dogwood, Red-osier dogwood

To celebrate the Autumn equinox I thought I’d share some berries, and for this post I’ve confined my enthusiasm for all berries to a shrub that really comes in to its own at this time of year, Dogwood. The species I see most often is Common dogwood (Cornus sanguinea), which grows in hedgerows and along woodland edges, the twigs of which have previously had an interesting use, according to the Woodland Trust website:

The origin of the name comes from the smooth, straight twigs which were used to make butchers’ skewers. Skewers used to be called ‘dags’ or ‘dogs’, so the name means ‘skewer wood’.

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I only noticed this second species of Dogwood quite recently, and then only because of its stunning berries that start out as tiny globes of purple before turning a bright snowy white. This is Red-osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea), which is usually a cultivated species grown in parks and gardens but which escapes that controlled setting to become naturalised in wilder places.

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The first of Autumn

01 Sunday Sep 2024

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants

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autumn berries, autumn colours, autumn fruit, rose hips, Sloes, Spindle fruits, whitebeam berries

Though today was actually quite warm and humid, there’s no denying that autumnal feel in the air. The evenings are getting dark earlier; there’s an occasional hint of a heavy dew, if not quite a frost; the birds have already begun their migration south for the winter; and, on the trees and shrubs, the fruits are bright and bursting, the leaves beginning to turn. Happy Autumn to all in the northern hemisphere (and happy Spring to those down under)!

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Beautiful berries

22 Sunday Oct 2023

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, trees

≈ 2 Comments

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autumn berries, autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, fruits

I hate when this happens: I had a free Microsoft video editor that was easy to use but, for reasons known only to themselves, Microsoft have deleted it and introduced new software which is totally incomprehensible to me. So, I made a video of my berry (and other fruit) images but with no title card and no captions, and no time to spend trying to figure out how easily to add them.
So, from the local fields and hedgerows, here are: Black bryony; Blackthorn; Bramble; Buckthorn; two types of Cotoneaster which, I think, are C. horizontalis and C. luteus; Dewberry; Field rose; Guelder-rose; Hawthorn; Ivy (not yet ripe); Japanese rose; Privet; Snowberry; Spindle (not really a berry/fruit but rather a case for the seeds within, but I love their colour); Stinking iris; Whitebeam; and Yew.

Birds and berries, 1

27 Saturday Nov 2021

Posted by sconzani in autumn, birds

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autumn berries, berry-eating birds, birding, birds and berries, birdwatching, British birds, Woodpigeon

When I walked past this same spot two days after taking this photo, the tree was bare of berries and there were some very content-looking full-bellied Woodpigeons perched nearby.

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Fruits

12 Sunday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in autumn, plants, trees

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#WildflowerHour, autumn berries, autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, drupes, fruits, hips, rose hips

This was @wildflower_hour’s tweet announcing this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge:

Samaras, siliques, nuts, drupes, berries, hips and capsules, how many different types of wild fruit can you find? That’s the challenge this week for #WildflowerHour. Share your pics this Sunday 8-9pm using the hashtag #fruits.

I’m saving my samaras, siliques, nuts and capsules for another day but here are my drupes, berries and hips: an assortment of Black bryony, Bramble, Buckthorn, Crab apple, Dewberry, Red-osier dogwood (with vivid red stems and white fruit) and Common dogwood, Guelder rose, Hawthorn, the hips of Japanese rose (these grow wild at the local country park) and Dog-rose, Sloe, Whitebeam, Woody nightshade and Yew.

Blackcap in Elderberry

01 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds, trees

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autumn berries, bird migration, birding, Blackcap, Blackcap eating Elderberries, British birds, Elderberry, Sambucus nigra

It’s not only humans that like to go foraging for ripe berries in the autumn. Though the raw berries of the Elderberry tree (Sambucus nigra) are mildly poisonous to mammals, they do not seem to affect fruit-eating birds, and Blackcaps, in particular, love to feast on them. This beautiful female had interrupted her migration journey south to top up her tank with their succulent goodness.

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Wayfaring berries

09 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by sconzani in plants

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autumn berries, berries, British trees, tree berries, Wayfaring tree, Wayfaring tree berries

I’ve been resisting taking berry photos, trying to deny the fact that the days are shortening and the summer heat slowly fading, but I have been watching the Wayfaring trees I featured earlier this year, in the post The Wayfarer, and I couldn’t resist documenting how the glorious flowers from May have gradually been developing into luscious shiny red berries.

271/366 Tooty fruity

27 Sunday Sep 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, trees

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autumn berries, autumn colour, autumn fruit, berries, fruit, hips

‘Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.’
~ Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, 1912.

200927 1 cotoneaster 200927 2 snowberry 200927 3 spindle 200927 4 hawthorn 200927 5 japanese rose 200927 6 sloe 200927 7 guelder rose 200927 8 dog rose

248/366 The bramble eater

04 Friday Sep 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, plants

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Tags

autumn berries, birding, birdwatching, blackberries, bramble, British birds, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, Pheasant, pheasant eating blackberries

A rustle of vegetation … an eye … who’s this lurking behind the ‘snipe paddock’ fence at Cosmeston?

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A female Pheasant? A common enough bird in the local countryside but not normally seen here in this dog-full park. She has quite short tail feathers and she’s not too bothered about my presence so I presume she’s a juvenile.

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