Heather, Calluna vulgaris, with rime-ice Rime-ice highlights last summer's flowers, adorning them with ice-jewels that sparkle in the sun. The ice-coating forms to windward and renders flower-stems almost translucent. Heather looks lovely under rime-ice. Seed-heads of wood-sage endure and stand proud above snow so how will they fare in rime-ice? I know the wood-sage habitat so I go in search of the rafts of limestone clitter where I hope to find it.
There's a rise of outcropping limestone where white flowers of blackthorn lie low amongst rock in spring and here wood-sage grows. By mid-day a trace of white cloud arose but blue sky prevailed and wood-sage seed-heads were coated in rime-ice and shot through with sunlight. The limestone was stippled white and the sun had begun to melt the rime-ice which hung jewel-like upon last summer's seed-heads. I crouched low over the limestone, intent on taking photographs and hearing geese I paused to follow the chevron in flight across the sky.
Sunlight on snow-clad fells is lovely but not unusual in winter. Rime-ice is unique in my archive. For me, these images are for slow-looking. Jewels of ice melt and hang precarious, crystals morph and melt in transient beauty.
Sunlight on snow-clad fells is lovely but not unusual in winter. Rime-ice is unique in my archive. For me, these images are for slow-looking. Jewels of ice melt and hang precarious, crystals morph and melt in transient beauty.
The last four images show wood-sage in the snow. The sunny day casts shadows of the seed-head to pattern the snow. Where it is melting there are dark patches as limestone shows through. Rime-ice creates a very different effect. These are my Faberge flowers, winter jewels of wood-sage. Together, the rime-ice and sunlight show the rich colour of the wood sage stems and seed-heads. Adders breed here, hibernating deep beneath the snow.
Overnight snow and a foggy day seemed a good time for a nature writer's day and an archive search for wood sage in snow and flowering in late July. Circa 2015, I focused on close-ups of flowers and their reproductive parts. The closer you look the less a flower resembles what walkers might see as they stroll by. I like something almost abstract and I enjoy challenging my botanist friend Fiona- can she identify a macro image where all context is stripped away? My Marjorie Blamey Illustrated Flora is so well-used it needs rebinding. Of wood sage the flowers are pale green, yellow, whitish. ' 8-9 mm long, hairy, stamens protruding with maroon anthers, in leafless spikes.' On Scout Scar, wood sage habitat niche is the limestone clitter.
Overnight snow and a foggy day seemed a good time for a nature writer's day and an archive search for wood sage in snow and flowering in late July. Circa 2015, I focused on close-ups of flowers and their reproductive parts. The closer you look the less a flower resembles what walkers might see as they stroll by. I like something almost abstract and I enjoy challenging my botanist friend Fiona- can she identify a macro image where all context is stripped away? My Marjorie Blamey Illustrated Flora is so well-used it needs rebinding. Of wood sage the flowers are pale green, yellow, whitish. ' 8-9 mm long, hairy, stamens protruding with maroon anthers, in leafless spikes.' On Scout Scar, wood sage habitat niche is the limestone clitter.
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