The Beauty and Bounty of Seed Heads

Gentle Reader ~~~ Autumn is the season of plenty, as we bring in the fruits from our harvest to see us through the slowing, darkening days of the fading year; with the joy of a bountiful harvest Autumn brings the promise of new beginnings, for what would Spring be without the seeds that scatter and sow in the months of Autumn?  Many a wutheringly wildly windy Winter's afternoon is spent, curled up in front of the fire, mug of tea and a plate of cake nearby, perusing the pages of the many seed catalogues that find their way on the west wind into my letter box ~~~

Larders, pantries, earth and sand clamps, and today modern freezers, are full to over flowing with the bounty of the harvest as we put up our shelves of jewelled jars of jams, pickles, and chutneys; vegetables and fruits to the freezer; racks of drying herbs; and beautifully braided plaits of garlic and onions to sustain and nurture us through the coming leaner days of Winter ~~~ a well stocked store cupboard is a delight to behold ~~~ but the cupboard would be bare, and the hedgerows sparse, with not a flower in the borders to cut for a vase if not for the seeds from which everything grows ~~~

Seed heads are some of the most beautiful, creative shapes and colours imaginable, if we only look at them.  Fibonacci abounds ~~~

I confess, I have somewhat of an addiction to seed heads, so today I am sharing with you some of my many images of seeds, seed heads, pods, and carriers that are now abundant in the garden and across the fields and hedgerows of The Shire ~~~

Here are a few of my favourites ~~~

Papery dry, long finger~like seed heads of Aquilegia aka Grannies Bonnet

From above such intriguing spirals ~~~

One of my favourite flowers and seed heads ~~~ the Opium Poppy ~~~

Poppy head just beginning to ripen

Drying and becoming golden, ready to shed their seeds

Golden and completely dry ~~~ seeds gone! 

The Arty Shots ~~~ macro images of skeletal poppy seed heads ~~~

The hard, prickly outer casing of a conker, or horse chestnut ~~~

and then, dried and split open ready to shed the seeds Under The Spreading Chestnut Tree

Not to be confused with the Sweet Chestnut ~~~

A single yew berry, a delicious looking {to a bird} shade of red ~~~

Three different compositions of Crocosmia Seed Heads

Covered in silken webs

Nigella Seed Pods looking fierce and alien ~~~

Haws ~ another favourite of birds ~~~

Hawthorn Berries of May Flower

Fantasy Feathery Rose Bay Willow Herb Seed Pods opening up ~~~

The Arty Shots of seed heads trapped on spider webs and kissed with raindrops ~~~

Another alien looking seed head ~ marigold ~~~

A long, spiky foxglove with many thousands of seeds long gone ~~~

Now, several images of one of my favourite seed heads ~~~ Pine cones ~~~
~~~I love Pine Cones ~~~

Oh! my goodness ~~~ what a collection of 'helicopters' just waiting to catch a lift on the breeze ~~~

More Arty Shots ~~~ the seeds of a sycamore {above} fallen and landed on a car bonnet ~~~ now, I'm sure the owner thought it made a mess and regrets parking underneath ~~~but I saw a joyful opportunity~~~

An amazing pattern ~~~

Grasses always have super seed heads and I love growing them for their photogenic looks ~~~

Water droplets gathering on hairy, sticky Goose Grass seeds ~~~

No Autumn scene would be complete without rich, red, ruby rose hips ~~~ these are rugosa rose hips ~~~

or a golden, prickly teazle ~~~ a favourite food source for Goldfinches ~~~

another Arty shot ~~~ playing with an oleander seed and a skeletal poppy seed head ~~~

{I can't help myself, can I?}

Here is an Autumnal arrangement from a year or two ago, with gourds {the most gnarly and decorative of seed heads}, teazles, and a variety of gathered pine cones ~~~

These are just a few of the seed heads and pods that decorate the Garden and the countryside around my Cottage in The Shire ~~~ I hope you have enjoyed seeing them as much as I do ~~~ I never dead head my plants at the end of Autumn, I leave them to sow themselves, and I'm sure the Birds of the Garden will enjoy eating the many that do not germinate into new plants too ~~~ but more on the birds another day ~~~

Finally, here is the solution to the little poser I set for you on Bank Holiday Conundrum picture for fun.  Well, even I am not one hundred percent certain as to what it is.  It often happens, when I develop an image, something that I did not see at the time reveals itself like a special present. This image is a cropped section of a larger image of an Alchemilla mollis after a rain shower {one of my favourite subjects} and on closer viewing there is 'something' in the centre of the dew in the middle of the leaf. Exactly what that 'something' is I don't know. I have my own two theories ~ it is either a large grain of pollen, or more likely I think it is a butterfly egg that has fallen into the 'giant' lake of water in the middle of the leaf.  So well done to anyone who came close {especially if you hadn't seen it on my Facebook page first}.

Until next time
Sincerely yours
Deborah

Celebrating Apple Time ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ it is that time of year when the garden and the hedgerows begin to give up the last of the seasonal bounties ~~~ the fruits that have silently and slowly formed, ripening during the warm Summer days are waiting to be harvested ~~~

Blackberries glisten as black jewels dripping from the bramble vines, wild damsons, bullace, sloes, rose hips, nuts of all sorts, and crab apples fill the hedgerows across The Shire ~~~ humans and animals alike are foraging for their Winter stores ~~~

Blackberries

Sweet Chestnuts

Rosehips full of Vitamin C

 

The apples in the garden are inviting and delicious. One of life's simple, yet sweetest, pleasures is stepping out from my cottage door in the early morning, walking barefoot over the dew kissed grass of the lawn to the apple tree and picking a fresh, perfectly fragrant, rosy red, apple, slightly warmed from the sun that is slowly climbing in the pale blue sky of an early Autumn day ~~~

Rosy Red Apples on the Bough

Yet, all is not well ~~~ I have fierce competition for these deliciously fragrant fruit call out and beckon wasps and crows to sample their delights ~~~

Crows have already nibbled away

making a perfect hole for a wasp to enter

and get his fill of the fragrant fruit

So I had an idea ~~~ I tied some of those net bags, the kind that come with washing powder tablets, over the reddest and most enticing looking apples to deter the marauding crows ~~~

It worked, up to a point ~~~ but there was a shortage of bags, for the bags are few and the apples are many and also very high up ~~~

So, today, although some of the apples are not fully ripe, I started picking them for storage. As you can see, there is a good lot of apples here, and I have about the same amount left to pick again.

Although they are eating apples, they do not store well.  I will take the best for my own fruit bowl and give some away.  The rest I will put up in the freezer or make jelly or wine. I am not a fan of Apple Butter. I will spend the next day or so using my Apple Master. I could not manage the processing of this amount of apples without this brilliant little gadget.  By tomorrow evening, these two baskets will be peeled, cored, sliced and either frozen ready to make into pies during the Winter months ahead, or into apple sauce for the plate.  I can then go and harvest the rest!

As with all foraging, do not eat anything unless you are completely certain what you are eating is safe. If in doubt, don't!

Until next time,
Sincerely yours
Deborah

For those of you who put your guesses down for the what is it? I will give you a few more days in case anyone has missed it, and tell you what it is in my next entry.