May on the Southwell Trail - Part 3 (2023)

By mid May the ground was rock hard on the path from the Southwell Trail to Kirklington, emphasising the lack of recent rain. Not far along that path was an avenue of flowering horse-chestnut trees and a row of verdant oaks.

Kirklington Path (March 2023)

The Kirklington path branches off the Southwell Trail across the Hexgreave Estate where a small line of oak and horse chestnut trees borders one of the fields. I have photographed these many times over the years, often enjoying their shapes and branching patterns. On this particular occasion, soft clouds, patches of blue sky and periodic sunlight combined for the following set of photographs:

September on the Southwell Trail (2021)

My posts have been a bit erratic in the last couple of months, as I respond to a bereavement within the family. It is a sad time and photography, like many other activities, has taken a back seat.

On the occasions that I did manage to get out with the camera, it was a welcome release. This selection notes the first seasonal changes along the Southwell Trail in September and features an avenue of horse chestnut trees that line the entrance to Spring's Farm and then onwards to the Hexgreave Estate. 

The avenue cuts the Southwell Trail and its associated paths in three places which provides the vantage points for all of the images…the horse chestnuts being one of the first trees to show autumn colours as the leaves dry out, some due to a leaf mould which seems to impact from early summer:

September on the Southwell Trail - Part 2 (2020)

Over the years that I have photographed the Southwell Trail I have become accustomed to the seasonal changes for certain individual or groups of trees. For example, the first type of tree to show autumn colours are the horse chestnut trees. The leaves tend to brown in late summer and then dry quickly in early autumn. Up close these leaves look blotchy and unattractive but when they are viewed in a sunlit landscape they display a wonderful auburn colour. 

This is most notable on two horse chestnut avenues leading to Spring Farm. Unfortunately though, the avenues are on private land which restricts the photography to views from an old railway bridge. Here I show the progress of autumn with a repeat composition from the bridge - broadly, early, mid and late September:

                                             

                                                   

                                                   

Update: I was processing October's photography and found a partial view of the horse chestnut avenue which demonstrates the trees' seasonal colours in the landscape. I also, found a further repeat of the composition shown above which was taken in mid October when many of the leaves had fallen:

                                          

Easier to view and photograph is a line of mature ash trees towards the Edingley end of the Southwell Trail. In autumn the ash leaves change from summer green to, in some cases, bright yellow before they fall. However, the trees are individual in this respect. One quickly yellows, another seems to thin very early in the season, and one holds onto the green for much longer than the others. These are some of photographs taken during September:

Besides the horse chestnuts and the ash trees there were other signs of autumn during September in the birch, maple and hawthorn trees. There was even some isolated colours in the oaks trees which are generally the last to succumb to autumn. I will show more of this in the next post but these are a few shots of the green leaf oaks in September sunlight: