Frosty Farberry and Pretty Puddles

A frosty morning at Farberry Garth.

Thd day had started with the big jets (I'd guess at Typhoons by the racket) flying around.   I think they were playing Noughts and Crosses...

The puddles were frozen, and I started to notice the different patterns in them.  Thinking of  the way that rock freezes in different shapes as igneous lava sets (think Staffa), this is a short collection...

 

 

Delicate lacing...

Smooth curves...

 

 

Jagged spikes...

It must be something to do with the variables, depth of puddle, rate of freezing, air flow, sunlight, adsorption of the soil (or is that absorption?), whether it has been smashed to buggery by a tractor, etc.

Birds on a wire (starlings).  One would expect that as I got closer they would be off as a flock, but in fact they left a few at a time in different directions until there were two left.  Looking side to side, it seemed that they were playing a game of "chicken" (or "sparrow" as they probably call it).  Moments after the loser left the other counted to five and shot off.

 

 

 

There appeared to be fog in the distance towards Kiplingcotes

No apologies for another woodland shot...

Finally a frozen fungus...

I've just found out this thing costs money!

I could have been a Ring Ouzel...

 

 

But instead these white bits finished up on the back of my neck.

 

Maybe when we get to the next full moon...

 

 

At this point Google deleted my uploads and demanded money.  This space is for sale...








Anyway, the floods passed us by(thankfully) but the standing water can be seen from the scarp...

Meanwhile a couple of regulars in the garden...

Must get the focus sharper when the light is better.

Beech balls, Berries and Bambi (almost)

A foggy start, and a walk on the usual beat, up Warter Road..

Beech balls...

Everybody go "groan".  Actually a curious fungus, quite unlike the birch bracket fungus.

Lots of little balls...

I think this one is trying to say "Hello"...

Just above the fog, the surveillance continues, more subtle (or perhaps a very bad picture)......

More strange fruit, this time fieldfares but it is a real challenge getting close enough to do them justice.  On the odd times you see them close up they are really striking birds, not the Hitchcock sinister shapes in the middle distance...

 Berries.  Just by the car, in a patch of replanted hedgerow, was this crop of berries.  Not the usual, they looked like Gogi? (sorry, I've eaten them but I can't spell them) berries...

And Bambi?  Sorry that was a tease, but the was evidence of his passing...

Sunday and the sun came out.

Don't know quite where this picture was taken, it's hard to tell...

It was a frosty start to the day, and the puddles were still showing it...

The colours were quite striking...

I really don't know whether this next picture (peeking over a hedge) is quite good, or really, unspeakably, awful.  Put it on full screen and look for a short while.  It is a bit like a still life (in the modern style - that is random rubbish- and a bit of landscape.  Let me know,  No, on second thoughts don't.

The leaves have almost gone...

They're still up there...

The first of two woodland shots..

Meanwhile Mrs D spotted a white pheasant, waiting for winter to give it a natural advantage

This second, similar to the first, has been carefully framed to the golden ratio, phi, which is supposed to make it irresistible to medieval maidens (or something).  I think given the widescreen, modern view, it should be a bit more letter-box.

...

Strange Fruit

 

I have referred before to the poor hedgerow harvest in this area.  It came as some surprise, therefore, to see this in the hedge when we parked.  The hedge had just been trimmed, so it seemed all the more strange...

 

 

It appeared to be some sort of creeper or climber that had been chopped down and then replaced in the hedge by some caring soul.  Others of the same were close about.  Still, food for the Redwings and Fieldfares who were around, but not posing for the camera.


The walk was a short one from Lund Wold to Warren House Farm and back.  We were both recuperating from colds.  The drive is planted with a veritable arboretum of specimen trees which left me lost for identification most of the time.

 

 

There was an oak tree with no acorns (I looked) but a gall that looked a bit like beech mast.



 

 

A small conifer seemed to be working hard on next year's cones...

One tree ( I really, really should know this one.) had catkins and little seed cones...

"Is it Larch?" says Mrs D.  But the leaves look different.

A last bit of autumn colour...

Another tree with just a very few strange berries...

Yellow berries.  What has yellow berries?  I think this looked a bit like a Rowan.

By this time the sun was very patchy and the wind was getting up.  Getting a steady shot was getting tricky, so I think all the out of focus bits should be called bokeh (see previous) and I'll pretend I meant it that way.

A very attractive road...

At least I can recognise Hawthorne...

And finally, the reason I called this blog Strange Fruit...

No.  We thought about it and couldn't explain it either.

Apologies to anyone who thought I had taken the title lightly.  The original is here .