Winter Trail

I have a collection of photographs in Lightroom headed 'trail details'. It includes an assortment of different close up photographs, mostly flowers, leaves and anything that catches my eye when I am out walking along the Southwell Trail. Over time some of these images lose their relevance in a photoblog context - there is little point covering spring flowers in winter I guess!

This post therefore covers some of the most recent entries into the details folder, albeit I am still a month behind in processing so the most recent is early January!

I start with New Year's Day and the unexpected appearance of a Chickweed flower:

It seems that winter can be very short for some trees and in late December the alder and hazel trees were displaying their catkins. The alder catkins have a distinctly reddish appearance whilst the hazel catkins are more yellow/green. I was a little unclear about the identity of fourth image below. These catkins look different but I think they are hazel as well but not yet mature. In addition, I think I can see the red female flower in between the male catkins (also not mature at this stage).

Also on display were the first signs of willow catkins which I would normally expect to see in early spring rather than early January. Interestingly though, nothing has developed further on this tree and we are now in mid-February. Also, I spotted some birch catkins on a low branch (second image below):

I often see these papery seed pods in winter. They are from the wildflower Honesty, Lunaria annua - I assume that lunaria refers to the moon-like appearance of the pods:

Any colour in winter stands out and I often find myself drawn to the colours like a moth to light. The first three images below are simple but colourful bramble leaves followed by some dog rose leaves against a plain blue sky:

Finally, frosty leaves always grab attention and these are few from mid December 2018: