Continuing on my tree and autumn theme – this week it is all about shapes. I hate to think of nature designing anything. Everything has adapted and has evolved to be the best it can be. Each leaf having it own unique pattern. Even the bark of the oak tree is an intricate pattern of different shapes.
We are at that period of late autumn when we get the best colours from the trees around us – so that is this weeks six on Saturday.
1. Oak is probably one of my favourite trees. We have a few young oak in our hedgerow and I have planted some acorns we collected a couple of weeks ago.
Oak
2. The beech hedge is turning from yellow to brown now, and is proving popular with the little birds particularly the blue and coal tits. It’s a great place to hide after you managed to get a whole peanut from the bird feeder!
Beech hedge
3. Larch grows in the wood that borders the garden.
Larch
4. I love the way these willow leaves go banana yellow – we had three nights frost earlier in the week and they really start to yellow up after that.
Willow
5. Lots and lots of rain today – here a dying hazel leaf next to some new shots – a promise of spring to come.
Hazel
6. And finally alder seeds – again covered in raindrops.
What would we do without our glorious trees? Trees come in all shapes and sizes and yet each one grows from a tiny seed and can live for hundreds of years.
This month Wild Daffodil’s Monthly Meet Up has the theme “Tree”. Here are some trees from my archives, some of which you may have seen before. Trees are amazing and provide us with so much:- fuel, food, shelter, oxygen to name just a few.
The photograph below shows hawthorn branches encrusted in various different lichens. Trees are not just trees, but living ecosystems in their own right.
There are at least eight different lichens here, and these are all on the same tree! It is estimated that there are 1,165 species lichens growing in Ireland, so maybe eight on one tree isn’t that many after all!