An Enchanted Place

During August I’ve again been photographing the wildflower meadow, wooded area and stream for Cardinal Guzman’s Changing Seasons Challenge. As usual I have far more pictures in my galleries than we’re asked to share, but I couldn’t bear to cut anything else out!

With many of the flowers having withered away over the summer, leaving a sea of golden grass, during August the main focal points of the meadow became the little trees scattered throughout the area. There are over thirty of these, but until recently they’ve been too small to show up in pictures, having only been planted when the field was bought a few years ago by a lovely couple who live in the village. It is this couple who have turned the space into the beautiful area it is now, and have made it accessible for everyone – for which I am incredibly grateful! Here are a few pictures of some of the little trees:

Whilst most of the flowers in the meadow have faded, there are a few that still remain.

But even with the fading of the flowers, there is still beauty to be found amongst the long grass. I’ve always found seedpods and dried flowers to be as attractive in their own way as flowers at the peak of their bloom…

One of the things I always love to do when I’m visiting the meadow, wooded area and stream is to look for any wildlife that I can photograph. I always see far more things than I actually manage to capture, though during August I was particularly fortunate with many of my shots. Having said that, a few pictures (the moorhen and the sparrowhawk) were taken right at the limit of my 70-300mm lens and still had to be cropped to show the creatures properly. They were also taken handheld, meaning that they’re not quite as clear as I would have liked, but I they were shots I was so pleased to have captured that I couldn’t leave them out.

One of my favourite features in the meadow are the cluster of tree stumps, and the items that sit on top of them. And yes… many of them were placed there by me. 🙂

With Autumn drawing nearer, the wooded area has become increasingly interesting to photograph. The acorns and sycamore helicopters have grown larger, whilst spiderwebs  wreathe many trees.

To finish off I’ll leave you with a few pictures of my favourite things to hunt for at this time of year – the toadstools that hide among the grass and leaf-litter.

I hope you all enjoyed August’s collection of images. I had hoped to share them before the end of the month, but unfortunately my internet connection died. Luckily it didn’t stay off for too long this time.

If you’d like to see how the area has changed over the course of the year, you can find the previous months’ galleries by following the links below:

February
March
April
May
June
July