Red, White and Blue

A couple of photos from yesterday.

Sunrise. Looking to the West from the end of my lane with the Sun behind me,
Lovely blue sky with clouds illuminated red by the rising Sun.



The white?



Although cold it was a brilliant Sunny morning with blue skies so later on we went walkabout through the churchyard and spotted the Snowdrops were at last showing through.

A Colourful Day

It started when I noticed a few of my Dwarf Iris plants:



For our mid morning walk-about we cut trough the back of the churchyard.
As expected the Snowdrops were out under the trees:



and around the tombstones:



The main crop of Winter Aconite was putting on a good show:





The day ended with a glorious Sunset:

The Covers Come Off

It was in July last year when I wrote about the covers being erected over the village church roof as extensive repairs were about to begin. This morning I see they are finally being removed and the tons of scaffolding being dismantled:





That reminded me it was about time I had a look in the churchyard to see whether the Snowdrops and Winter Aconite had survived all the activity:





No problems there. In fact the Winter Aconite is looking better than it has for several years.

Spring is on its Way

Although the temp was about 3C with hazy sunlight I decided we would wend our way through the back of the village churchyard. Hopefully the Snowdrops and Winter Aconite would be in bloom and easier to photograph. I usually go on really sunny days but that tends to wash out the colours.

We were both well wrapped up as the gentle breeze made it feel more like 1C. As soon as we reached the back of the churchyard there were plenty of clumps of Snowdrops to be seen:









When we neared the front path the Winter Aconite patch came in to view:



Unfortunately they were already past their best:



But still great to see signs of plant life emerging as we near Spring.

All photos taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050 and processed in iPhoto.

Heading Towards Spring

For once it has been a dry day with wall to wall Sunshine.

At least some of the local flora assumes Spring is round the corner.  It was January 16th when I saw the first Winter Aconite open its flower. Now the whole batch is in full bloom:





Also showing are some small clumps of Snowdrops in the Churchyard:



Surprisingly a few of the flowers are showing on my corkscrew Hazel bush:



These are easy to miss as the red part is no more than 4mm across. Unfortunately the few that have opened will be of no use to the plant as all the catkins are still tightly closed.

A Walk through the Churchyard - Which Fungi?

For yesterday afternoon's walkies I thought we would try a route we haven't used for a couple of months. As the earth footpath is low lying it soon gets waterlogged but yesterday it was just a bit on the squelchy side but easily passable. Along this path are tall stumps of old Ash Trees which were cut down a few years ago and I noticed one was now being colonised by fungi. (Photos are not brilliant as I only had the mobile phone and even though it was a dull afternoon the highlights were over exposed)



After much searching through Google I am pretty sure the dark finger like growths are Dead Man's Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha)but I am not at all sure about the orange growths. To me they could well be one of the many variations I found called Jack O'Lantern but which variety is still a mystery to me. There was also a clump of these growing on top of the stump.



Continuing through to the back of the churchyard there was a lovely patch of Snowdrops under a group of ancient trees,



There I stood for a while with Bobby patiently waiting as I scoured the branches and trunks for any signs of bird or animal life to no avail. The only creatures about were some fancy chickens which had escaped from the neighbouring house and a lone rabbit hopping about the grass.

As we walked through the churchyard we passed one of my favourite spots this time of year. Here a large group of Winter Aconite were showing their bright yellow flower buds which will be opening over the next week or so.



Twice in the past I have gathered seed from these plants. Each time they have germinated but as soon as they reached about an inch in height they wilted and died. I see it is possible to buy the bulbs of cultivated Winter Aconite so I must try that way to get my own display of one of my favourite late Winter / early Spring flowers.