Microcosmic

Yesterday morning I wasn't able to walk very far. But I like to watch the sunrise when I can, so I drove to a layby with a bench and an excellent, high vantage point. Something I haven't done before - I decided to put music on. Sunn O))) - pronounced 'sun' - very loud on the earbuds. They are drone metal - deep, thick layers of guitar noise, not doing much except making a vast, ambient, monolithic - sonic cathedral. A bone -shaking but strangely ecstatic sound. It was around -7 degrees and the sky was Rothko. A smooth gradient - oranges through peach, ochre to a grey blue. A sky of deep, thick layers making a vast, ambient, monolithic - sky cathedral. I sat on the bench in the extreme cold, with the half moon still high in the sky, flask of tea in hand. Waiting. Waiting. The first sun's pinprick punctured the horizon. Everything revolved around this one bright point, flowed out of it, flowed into it. The sun rose like a glowing bathysphere. Rising up from the se...

Common Puffball releasing spores Everywhere on the patch there is an extruding and issuing. Toadstools are emerging from nooks, crannies and crevices. Agarics are bursting from the soil. Brackets are banding tree trunks.  Crusts, smuts and mildews are coating branches and leaves. Tripe, jelly, ears and brains are erupting their bizzare shapes from rotting wood. Fashioned, as if from the very stuff of underworld , from the soul of beneath. Fungi are brilliant!...here's why... Clouded funnel (Clitocybe nebularis) They are mysterious. Aristotle puzzled over the nature fungi, coming to the conclusion that they were an odd kind of plant. On the other hand,  a lot of his less scientific contemporaries believed them to be earthly manifestations of a magical realm. It's easy to see why. Their sudden appearance overnight, has something of the conjuring trick about it. Even plants move around, and rustle in the wind. Fungi just stand there - silent and still – myste...

These posters are available as downloads and as prints in my online shop microscosmic.shop Leaves of British -  Trees Buds of British Trees -  Bark of British Trees Absolutely Barking! Examples of different bark types trees which I've photographed on the patch Bark is like almost everything in nature – the more you look the more you see. If you walk through  a wood you will, of course, be aware of the trees, but only have a vague sense of the variety of bark. Once you stop to look you’ll see that every tree species has its own kind of bark, and even amongst trees of the same species – no two are alike. My latest patch project has been to photograph an example of the bark of each of the tree species on the patch – the result being the photos on this page. A quick glance through these is enough to show the range of bark types, colours and textures to be found - as well as their beauty . Some are rough,...