Allestree, David Oakes - Images, Derbyshire, English Countryside, English Woodland, Everyday Life, PHOTOGRAPHY,, postaday

You can smell the change……

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The Silver Birch Woods

Many of you will know that woodland is one of my favourite places to walk and relax, in all seasons and in all weathers.  You may even have guessed that Silver Birch is one of my favourite trees.  All though they are in tree terms, short lived, they provide immense pleasure with the silver bark, thin trunks that sway with the wind and small delicate leaves that rustle in the slightest breeze.

But they also have an aroma.  In the spring the aroma is light and citrusy which fades away over the summer….the come autumn a deeper more musky but sweet smell is created.  When that happens I know that autumn is not too far behind….. and I can detect that perfume  now as it mingles with the harsher aroma of the bracken.

DOI_3789bbb.jpg But that woodland canopy of leaves still holds strong, casting dark shadows with bright shafts of sunlight for contrast and to remind us the sun is still in the sky.

Acorns are forming on the Oak, this year they seem plentiful. So just so long as we get no strong winds we should have a bumper crop.

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But a wind is what the Rosebay Willowherb is hoping for to distribute its seeds far and wide, the seed heads now sprouting white whiskers that may just get caught in a birds feathers and taken on a more substantial journey.

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Down by the Lake it is a different world…all calm and summer like

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Not bad for mid – August

19th August

(C) David Oakes 2017

10 thoughts on “You can smell the change……”

    1. I think I rather like them over the other trees such as Beech and Oak because the Birch in comparison is so flimsy, usualy in poor ground and has to fight for its comparatively short life….yet at the same time those thin trunks bending back and forth in the wind makes them so alive 🙂

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  3. Wow, you captures exactly what I meant the other day about the leaves of the Silver Birch and the sun shining through them. As playing with the sunlight on the leaves of the bracken. In our park the young Silver Birches do bend in the wind. It keeps them alive.
    I really love todays photos. Autumn is on its way. 13 days… The last harvest feast will be on 21st September and is called Mabon. Celebration or harvests of apples, pears, prunes and nuts and also conkers, acorns , beechnuts and lots of berries.

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      1. Hopefully. We had great weather last week, except for the first day with pouring rain. We even had to take a taxi from Gatwick.

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