WALKING WITH NATURE

The larches (Larix spp.) are unusual conifers, in that they are deciduous and drop all their leaves each autumn, unlike their evergreen cousins. The new needles always remind me of green shaving brushes. European larch bears both male and female cones on the same tree (monoecious) at the tips of short lateral shoots on young branches. The short-lived, small, globular to oblong male cones are only seen in the spring. These can be seen on the left of the photo, and produce pollen which is carried on the wind. The egg-shaped, upright, persistent female cones are longer than the needles, with 40-50 scales. The female cones start out a somewhat showy red to pinkish-purple colour and mature to softly woody brown cones the first year. One female cone can be seen in the photo.

Large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike. In larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 2 in) thick. The seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetres (0.008 in) long, and attached to fine hairs. When ripe, the heads disintegrate into a cottony fluff from which the seeds disperse by wind.

Today's Saturday Self Challenge is: Anything that makes you feel better. Finding the beauty in nature makes me really happy. Narcissus jonquilla, commonly known as jonquil or rush daffodil, is a bulbous flowering plant, a species of the genus Narcissus. Bulbs have been planted on a bank in the grounds of our local church where they seem to be thriving.

Today's Sunday Challenge: Fill the frame The PiP shows the nest with 4 eggs. One of the swans had briefly left the nest to feed. Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott - The Swan (Saint-Saëns)

Hyacinthoides non-scripta and Silene dioica.

From left to right: Common storks bill - Erodium cicutarium Greater stitchwort - Stellaria holostea Common fumitory - Fumaria officinalis,

This would have been my attempt at 'Negative Space' for the Sunday challenge. Unfortunately Ipernity was down during the weekend, so only now can this photo see the light of day.

We are away for a few days and will miss HFF, SSC, TSC and HBM. I look forward to seeing all your photos next week.

Today's Saturday Self Challenge is: "From the perspective of a cat"

Today's Sunday Challenge: Isolate a subject. Any subject you like, but make sure it is the main focus of your image, the subject should draw our eyes to it immediately.

Original photo:

Green-veined White - Pieris napi

I love the way that pebbles get trapped in the gaps on groynes. These ones are all composed of flint and chalk apart from the red one which is most likely to be sea eroded brick. Houses fall into the sea fairly frequently on the coast of East Anglia.

This is the entrance to a new bird hide - not yet open. The improvements in the area include the creation of 3 large ponds, the new viewing area and wild flower areas etc. alongside the Montgomery Canal. The work has been subsidized by monies from the National Lottery fund. So far we have been very impressed, but the birds haven't yet arrived in large numbers. The insect life is very good.