Autumn; Nature's Skeletons and the onslaught of summer

I did not have much chance yet for enjoying and photographing Autumn's colour. Down here in the South West of the Republic of Ireland, Autumn starts only mid November due to the warm climate.
The other fact is that along the road and along the coastline here, all those leaves, which were only just starting to think about turning, their transformation was disrupted when they met with the enormous force of the gales being brought about by the changing weather conditions. You have to feel sorry for our trees, their rhythms being thrown overboard with flooded summers, leaving no time for their roots to dry out. The extra gales we've had during spring and summer, mean trees being stripped bare with no warning and at a time when the tree is relying on its her leaves with which she can convert the Sun's energy into a chemical used as food for the tree.
You'd have to think then that by the end of summer this same tree is short on energy reserve to face the coming winter.
And just thinking of the harshness the winter's climate will throw at our tree makes you shiver. And then poor tree has to find some energy somewhere too, so she can produce her leaves for spring and next summer.
And then imagine this on a yearly basis! Not just this once.

I have always been struck by the white skeletons in the fields here in winter, and often enough, I tried capturing these in my watercolour paintings and sketches, with either my nails or a small stick trying to scratch these into the washes. Or in the washes of ink if I was painting with black indian ink. one of my favourite mediums. (media?)
Now I am trying to capture it with dear Lady Lumix.




Do you like this one

Or perhaps the -edited version in which the branch is coming more to the front?

I took these a week or so ago, when I had been out shooting the Mosses. Now, with bad weather around us, I have a few minutes to doing them in a post

I was captivated by those 'strange green and overgrown vertical structures which make up the hedgerow in the field below, so

I zoomed in to get a better look at it;

I should have taken a better look at the wobbly little tree, but maybe next tine I'll remember?


My favourite of the lot:
Here, the beautiful white flowers of the Blackthorn will enlightening me sgain next spring:


And this House Sparrow I caught the other day


And this Hooded Crow I spotted along the road.

Revealed: Hills with a bird in the mist.

Wanting to get a shot of a bird in flight in the mist, I was too late again, a pity; it might have helped ID the one below on the cable. (sorry, but I posted this picture twice. Not intentionally)




Since moving to Ireland, mist got a whole new meaning for me. It is one of my favourite weather phenomenon, and having to get wet in the meantime, is mostly something as 'part of life' to me. Mist, like drizzle, is one of these things which can change the feel of the land within a matter of minutes, and the mood of a landscape alters almost before you even realise what it is exactly that has changed. No wonder it is the subject then of many legends, myths, stories and also paintings. Photo contests too, have many -mist-related- images among their winners..

With my wheels, I soon tend to get wet sooner than a vertical person because my lap offers a greater horizontal surface to the drops from above. Nevertheless, I do not really mind. (most of the times)

Someone told us once that drizzle is just a low hanging mist, and this is what I wanted to capture today, but each time I went out of the house, drizzle started again. Eventually I gave up, thought I'd better wait till another day, but when I went out to refill the bird's food-tray, I did my camera outside.

Behind our house, the fields go down to meet the little tidal river, and from there up over the hills between us and Bantry Bay.

While my camera was trying to make sense of the vast grey mass and focussing on nothing really, the view changed constantly.

I never expected to be able to capture the drizzle in the low hanging clouds over the hills, which indeed did not really come out on my photos, so next time I try again. It is not as if this mist or drizzle is a rare occurrence around here! So often I went down to the shop, saw the mist hanging over the hills, and promised myself to take some photos once I returned. Yet I never did.

I'm not sure, but when you switch off the lights, you can almost see the streaks of drizzle I think? I'm still trying ti figure it all out! Just by doing so, looking at it and then learning, I hope. Till the next time.

Birds were teasing me regularly, either flying over the fields behind us in small groups or on their own.
Then I spotted a bird sitting on a telephone cable, and thinking I would be able to ID it later from the photo, I was wrong! I have no idea what it is.




















I still hope to capture the mist over the bay one day, which will be a lot harder.