Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Walk down the lanes

We've been lucky to have bright if cold weather recently, ideal for going for a wander in the countryside.

country lane

The trees without their leaves look totally different of course but lovely in a different way.

winter trees

This cottage, sheltered by the trees and the brow of the hill, looked very cozy.

cottage in trees

Although I noticed the holly trees were almost stripped bare of their berries, other red fruits had been left. Obviously not so tasty!

red berries

These are the fruits of Rhus typhina, or Staghorn Sumac, which I always think of as a cultivated plant, but it was here in a hedgerow. There must have been a tree nearby and these were the suckers from it.

rhus typhina fruit

Surprisingly there were loads of conkers lying around and left to rot. I say surprisingly because if there had been any children around, they would have been instantly gathered for playing conkers as soon as they fell.

conkers

I can so well remember the search for good sources of conkers while my sons were at primary school. We used to spend hours trying to find a tree which hadn't been stripped. Great fun!

3 comments:

  1. stunning pictures!! makes me want to be there :-) (sigh)

    SA LONE PIKIN

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  2. Such a nice countryside walk. We've had a couple of days now when we've actually seen the sun, but otherwise all autumn has been very gray.

    Interesting to read about the game, I had no idea what you talked about and had to look it up in wikipedia. WE don't have that game here in Sweden.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks kreativemix and captain Lifecruiser. We have been lucky with the weather recently - bright and frosty. Sorry, I should have given a "conkers" link. I wasn't sure how far the game would have spread.

    ReplyDelete

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