Christmas Day

 

Nature Table - Winter Solstice

 A number of these items "shouldn't" be present on a December table - spring flowers and buds present alongside this season's berries and seed heads.

And now the light starts to increase again, the darkness starts to retreat . . . but it's still a long way to go until spring, and the metaphorical darkness of our times does not turn so easily.

The three-minute sunset

That's how long it took! Unfortunately, the camera was upstairs, so in the time it took me to fetch it, I missed the best of a beautiful pink mackerel sky.

 17:58, south-west

17:59, south-south-west

18:00, south

18:01, north-west

Schlumbergera

 

Stormy rainbow

This is why I keep a camera, out of its case and ready, in the living room!

I glanced out of the window and saw this:

And five minutes later, this:

Two minutes later expanded to this:

And then ten minutes after that, clear skies:

Nature Table - Samhain

Samhain (or All Hallows Eve, or Halloween) falls on 31 October, half way between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. The unseasonal seasons this year have created a very mixed collection for this photograph. Normally we would expect, on the verge of November, to be seeing wintry weather and some early frosts; but it's mild, wet, windy (a bit like September would normally be) and that sharp, musty smell of autumn in the morning air has not yet occurred.

In the earth calendar on which these posts are based, Samhain is the end of the old year and the start of the new. In 'normal' seasons, the vegetation of this year's growing season would be dying back; on trees and shrubs the tiny new buds of next year's growth would already be forming; this is the festival of both death and new life. 

But the seasons are disordered and, as a consequence, the symbolism of the festival is not clearly seen in the natural world. As I gathered from my garden, I collected a mixed, muddled bundle. I have made two attempts at the photograph and I'm not really happy with either - both seem to be to be muddled and disordered. As I was about to start again, to attempt to make a 'better' image, I realised that, actually, my images faithfully reflect the disordered reality.

Unseasonal weather, confused plants

 The weather this year has been peculiar. High summer happened in April and May. Then we had some cooler, even chilly, and wet weeks. Some of the plants seem to have thought they'd had winter, so then it must surely be spring. Some of my apple trees started flowering again in September.

Now, almost at the end of October, the leaves on the blackberry vines are turning their autumn colours, and there is still-red fruit which will never get the chance to ripen:

But on a nearby branch there are new 'spring' flowers appearing, which will never get the chance to set fruit:

Elsewhere in the garden, seeds from this year's Cerinthe major purpurascens have already germinated and flowered, which "shouldn't" happen until next spring:

And in the front garden, which gets the morning sun, a primrose is striving to flower in the blustery wetness of autumn:

Norfolk (6) - along the saltmarshes

 

Norfolk (5) - the beach at close of day

 Murky light again - grainy mono photos!

Norfolk (4) - weather front blowing in at RSPB Titchwell

 A walk through the nature reserve at RSPB Titchwell Marsh leads to a very lovely beach. The next weather front is blowing in from the sea.

Norfolk (3) - creek and harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea

 

Norfolk (2) - Holkham estate

 A walk around part of the vast Holkham estate on a day of very murky light. The resulting grainy photos seemed better suited to black and white.