October 2016

sunlit-leaf-2

During October I’ve again been photographing around the local meadow, wooded area and stream, taking pictures for Cardinal Guzman’s Changing Seasons photography challenge. For those of you who don’t know, local to me is a little village in the east of England, near the border between Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. The meadow is my favourite place in the village. I like to sit beside the stream, or on a bench in the meadow, to write my stories and poems. I find the place wonderfully calming and inspirational. Unfortunately I haven’t spent anywhere near as much time there this month as I would have liked, especially over the last fortnight, which means that the majority of these pictures were taken during the first half of the month. Hopefully I’ll be able to get out more in November.

Don’t forget to click on the galleries for a larger view of each picture.

Let’s begin by taking a little wander through the trees, watching out for toadstools underfoot, and down to the stream…

Although the mild weather we’ve been having this year means that the leaves are only just turning, October has nevertheless seen autumn steadily taking a stronger hold. Fruits and seeds were flourishing wherever I looked, with toadstools in particular becoming a regular focus for pictures.

Whilst the majority of the leaves have only just begun shifting into their autumnal colours, there were a few early ones that caught my eye.

Bare of summer flowers, the meadow has provided far fewer opportunities for photography during October than in previous months. But that’s not to say it’s provided none at all. There have been a number of misty mornings, and these in particular gave me some interesting scenes to capture.

I’ve already posted some black and white pictures of the spiderwebs that could be found adorning the trees and plants, but I couldn’t resist sharing a few pictures in colour, as well.

Unfortunately, there has been little in the way of wildlife for me to photograph this month. I’ve spotted a number of squirrels, but they never stay in one place long enough for me to capture them on camera, whilst the spiderwebs were all strangely devoid of spiders (not that I’m really complaining about that!). I did have one encounter with a robin during which I took a lot of pictures. Like the squirrels, though, he was flitting around so quickly that only one shot is even close to being in focus, the rest are pure blur.  I thought I’d share that one with you anyway, even though it’s not as clear as I’d have liked, along with a shot of a buzzard in flight over the meadow and a late red admiral butterfly enjoying the ivy flowers.

I hope you enjoyed October’s pictures. Did you have a favourite? I’d love to know.

If you’d like to check out the previous months galleries you can follow the links below:

February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September

thechangingseasons


31 thoughts on “October 2016

    1. Thank you! The back-lit leaf is my favourite too. 🙂 Spiderwebs in autumn are always wonderfully eye catching. I’m glad you like them.

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    1. Thank you, Sabina. I usually like to use a general scene setting image as my header but I liked the back-lit leaf too much just to include it in a gallery. I’m glad you like it too. 🙂 I’ll try to get over to your blogs today if possible. I haven’t had much time for blogging over the last few weeks – I feel like I’m neglecting everyone dreadfully!

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  1. Picking a favourite among this wonderful collection is quite difficult, but I’ll settle on the elegant composition of the young tree in the foreground of the mist. (I lived in Newark for 19 years)

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    1. Thanks, Derrick. 🙂 With those bright red leaves that tree stood out really well in the mist. My village is midway between Newark and Lincoln, though Newark is my home town. I was in the same year at school as Sam. 😀

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  2. Louise – your photographs are quite magical…I especially love the toadstools and the holly. It is what I always envisioned an English meadow must look like…I had no idea that it really does. 🙂

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    1. I’ve always found the meadow to be quite a magical place. As far as English meadows go, this one is actually quite new. Until two years a go it was just an overgrown, uncared for field, until it was bought by a lady who lives in the village. All of the meadow flowers have been sown from seed and are only just becoming established, but I find it beautiful. I’m glad you like the pictures. 🙂 By the way, do you have a name you go by on the blog, or should I just call you Doodle?

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    1. I learned about American robins just last year after seeing a picture of one on someone’s blog. My reaction was similar to yours! I’ll check out your post soon. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.

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  3. An impressive autumn collection here – I particularly like all your fungi. Your meadow is such a delight Louise – I am so glad that it is now being cared for.

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    1. Thank you. I’m glad you liked them. November definitely flew by! I’m actually hoping to have a gallery of November pictures up soon – though I need to finish editing them first.:)

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