Hazel catkins

Now is a good time to spot hazel bushes and trees.  The tight little bunches of catkins . . . . .

 . . . .slowly elongate and turn yellow with pollen.

These are the male flowers.  The female flowers are tiny red, whiskery stigmas no bigger than the bud they grow from.  They need to catch just one grain of pollen each from the male flowers to start the creation of autumn's hazel nuts.  When I see one this year I'll photograph it and post it on the blog.

 

Holly Berries

Almost two years since my last post.  This time two years ago it was a white Christmas and last year was pretty wintery too.  This year we have had a mild autumn so the holly berries have not yet been gobbled by the birds.

Himalayas in Thornbury

I have never been to the Himalayas but I would expect to see cedars, birches and snow like this. In fact I took this photo on 6th Jan in Thornbury, my home town.

Conifers look tremendous in snow. It emphasises their form and they somehow look right.

The tree on the left of the picture is a Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) native to the Himalayas. It is typical of a semi-mature Deodar with its drooping branches and the drooping tip to a long, slender leading shoot. Only a few conifers have drooping leading shoots: Lawson Cypress, Western Hemlock, the 'pendula' variety of Nootka Cypress and Deodar Cedar. So if you are trying to identify a conifer with a drooping tip it must be one of these.