Stitchwort (April 2022)

A quick post from April and a patch of stitchwort in the hedgerow on Combs Lane...such graceful flowers which always photograph well...

Blanchbeck Lane (May 2019)

There area couple of wonderful lime trees on Blanchbeck Lane which I regularly photograph as part of my doorstep photography project. Doorstep photography only includes photographs taken within walking distance of home and aims to build a greater appreciation of my local environment across the seasons.

On this occasion in mid-May, the lime tree leaves were displaying some fine spring colours which I captured in the following set of photographs:

Growing very close to the one of the lime trees was a patch of stitchwort plants - they have such elegant flowers and they are delight to photograph:

Spring on the Southwell Trail - Wildflowers (May 2018)

These are a selection of wildflower photographs taken along the Southwell Trail during May. Mainly, I capture the flowers as I see them, there isn’t anything scientific about my approach, and like much of my photography, it is part of an enjoyable past time activity. This extends to identifying the flowers from the photographs and, being no expert, I might get some of the identities wrong - although I try hard to avoid this.

Horse Chestnut Tree

These are the impressive flowers of the horse chestnut tree:

Campion

Stitchwort

Hawthorn Blossom

Herb-Robert

Dandelion

Some of the most ordinary wildflowers, or weeds, are actually quite fascinating when they are looked at closely. The dandelion, for example, isn’t just one flower but a composite which includes many small flowers or florets. It is generally apomictic which means that seed production occurs without pollination - it only take one dandelion to create a lawn full of them, each plant being genetically identical to the parent!

Honeysuckle

Farnsfield In Spring (May 2018)

The last time I took photographs near to Blanchbeck Lane in Farnsfield we had experienced significant rainfall and there was a lot of standing water, both in the fields and on the roads. There was even some snow on the ground and it was an unpromising start to spring - see my post ‘spring rain’. 

On this occasion, it looked more spring-like with the yellow oilseed crop blooming in the fields. I particularly like how the tree branches frame the fields in this location: 

To the west of Farnsfield is another footpath which is part of the Robin Hood Way; a series of walks that connects Nottingham and Mansfield to Sherwood Forest. I don't often walk this path preferring a different route along the Southwell Trail, but this time I had seen from the road some oilseed crop growing in one of the fields and decided to take a closer look - it is the colour that attracts me, which makes me sound like a camera-toting insect following the light, but I do find the brightness of the yellow flowers uplifting, it sort of punches the eyes with its brilliance:

Something else that I find eye-catchingly irresistible are plough lines, which I mentioned in a recent post. These particular lines were in the field next to the oilseed rape and were so fresh the path had disappeared, which makes it a hard walk as the trenches are deeper than they first appear:

On more even ground the path makes its way to the village. There were a couple of oak trees on the path with young leaves sprouting or unfurling - do leaves sprout or unfurl? I am not sure. Anyway, I liked the shape of one of the trees that branched over the path:

Last but not least, a mass of stitchwort flowers which I spotted near to the path: