A Woodland Walk
Chambers Farm Wood on an Autumn’s Morning….
It seems to me that a wood is the yardstick above all else for showcasing the changing seasons and the cycle of life. A woodland scene in early Spring offers hope and new life as it drags itself up from a deep Winter’s sleep before gathering pace and bursting into Summer with blazes of green and the sound of songbird. It is a time to soak up the warmth and feel renergised by the sun’s rays before the inevitable slowing down and submission of Autumn through Winter and it is in a wood close to my home that I now watch that precursor to nature’s hiberantion, the late Autumn…
Chambers Farm Wood in Autumn
It is one of those typical Autumn days, wet underfoot with the early morning dew and the wood submerged under a blanket of mist. The pathways are littered with fallen leaves and I curse at the sharp crack of twigs and branches as they resonate through the trees mocking my every step deeper into the heart of the wood. A chain reaction of sounds ensues, blackbirds shriek and take flight, pheasants scurry into the undergrowth alarming squirrels into climbing ever higher into the trees above. I am alone again, even the robin, that most trusting of birds has made for cover and I am left to walk towards the light of the open fields where the sun is making its late entrance.
The Old Pathway
I smile as the robin with its faint breast evades me at every raise of my camera for I know that my time will come. As the days grow shorter and the nights turn colder the trees and bushes will shed their fruits and that robin will feed ever closer to the path I tread and reach of my lens with its breast bright red in the dull grey of a Winter’s morning. So it is for now at least that I must wait and set my sights instead on the landscape and the colours of Autumn and remind myself if ever I needed to why this is my favourite season of them all….
The Wood in Autumn
Brilliant,
you caught it perfectly - love the shots
Rod
November 10, 2009 @ 9:07 am
Miles,
Beautiful photos and prose - they say it all.
Anne
November 10, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Miles,
Can there be anywhere as magical as a woodland or forest? Constantly changing and sweet with the smell of the earth and trees. Your enthusiasm for the season perfectly matches these photographs…. I can see Merlin wandering through the mist… almost.
Cid
November 10, 2009 @ 11:17 am
Your prior commenters have said it all. Brilliant, beautiful and magical! What more can I say?!
Melissa
November 10, 2009 @ 2:21 pm
Really great Miles!
Especially love the last shot with the great patriarchal oaks emerging from the golden mist in the distance . . .
My favorite season as well!
Thanks!
Laura
November 10, 2009 @ 6:10 pm
All,
Thanks everyone, glad you like it.
Miles
November 10, 2009 @ 10:06 pm
Miles,
There is something enticing about the light in Autumn. Whether it is that shadows seem a bit longer, or that there is a sweet haziness that forewarns of hibernation, Autumn, especially the one you have captured, casts a spell on us. The crackling of the twigs; the musky scent of fallen, damp leaves; the sharpness of sounds that echo around us–they all lend a sense of calm after the frenetic days of summer. Like other of nature’s creatures, we clean, and ready our nests in preparation of a season of rest. It is the sense of preparation, the desire to find a safe, warm place that makes me love Autumn. Thank you for so beautifully and artistically rendering something that stirs within our hearts and souls.
Annie
November 12, 2009 @ 10:52 pm
Annie,
A lovely comment. Thank you very much indeed.
Miles
November 12, 2009 @ 11:40 pm