Looking at Yew

I have been feeling a little under the weather this past week so hadn't been out for a few days so today I headed out to Chirk Castle near Wrexham in North Wales to look at and possibly photograph the display of snowdrops .

On the way there I almost turned back due to a heavy snow storm but when I arrived although the conditions were very changeable it was definitely worth the effort of getting out and as well as some shots of the snowdrops (including some experimental images) which I will eventually share I got a range of other images from the castle and grounds which I am really pleased with.

The best display of snowdrops is found in the "Pleasure Ground Woods" and on the entrance to the woods there is an old yew tree. I was struck by the depth and the detail in the ancient bark and took the above shot to showcase some of the detail. As I looked more closely at the image I noticed a chilling face so I rotated the image and cropped it slightly to bring the face into focus as you can see in the image below. It looks to me like an alien face either with the creature's own hand covering its mouth or perhaps being restrained or silenced... I hope you like this as much as I do.

 

Along the Way

 Between Christmas and New Year I enjoyed a walk around Malham in the Yorkshire dales. I walked along Gordale Beck to Janet's Foss a delightful waterfall in a woodland setting and then on to Gordale Scar where the waterfall carves its way through the rock in spectacular fashion. This was also the location for a scene in the Netflix series The Witcher where Ciri comes face to face with a vicious monster.

Then I followed the trail towards the top of Malham Cove and the images above were captured along the way.

Treat Me Kind...

So yesterday's blog showed the orderliness of the carpenter's workshop and today I have selected some shots of some of the wood off cuts. 

If you have seen my blog before then you will know that I like textures, patterns and colours in nature and I have posted pictures of wood grain previously click here or here for example.

I really like the warm colours in these bits of wood just discarded and left to decay.  I also like the patterns in the grain. The third picture is of a cross section of a tree stump and in the centre there is a core of bark which has been "consumed" as the tree has grown around it.

Old Wood 2

Today's post is a selection of abstract shots of a decaying log.  I really like the fibrous quality of the wood.  I think the monochrome images work better than the final colour image and I think my favourite is the second picture.