Tuesday 31 January 2012

Roman roads

Look at this satellite photo of the Via Flaminia (one of the most famous Roman roads) passing through the suburbs just North of Rimini. The occupied (warmer) houses show up as white / pale green, while the darker rectangles are colder, unoccupied premises.


No, that's a load of rubbish. It is actually a picture of a leaf!  Here it is viewed more conventionally:


It's a Sweet Chestnut leaf, floating in a puddle of water.I just love the patterns created by its veins.

This is a more traditional style of photo - a close-up study of a Blueberry bud just beginning to form:


I'm "on" leaves today, so what do you think of this one? It's a tiny leaf from a Swiss Chard plant.


I think the pink stem is particularly attractive. During the Summer the plant's stems were all white, but in the cooler weather the bases of all the new leaves are this shade of pink, though it seems to fade when they grow bigger.


Finally for today, this lovely but unidentified red leaf. It looks a bit like the one I used for my "Autumn" picture a couple of months ago, but it must be of a different type since all the "Fish tree" leaves have been dry and brown for ages now. It must have blown in from someone else's garden.


The brown berries are the formerly bright red ones from the Fish tree itself. [Note to new readers: Fish tree is our name for a tree in our garden that is a type of Sorbus. It has very "fishy"-smelling blossoms in the Spring.]

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I'm afraid I haven't much time for blogging at present. For the first three days of this week I am commuting from Fleet to Bristol each day, a journey of about one and three-quarter hours each way, so spare time is a bit scarce. I hope to put together something a bit more substantial later in the week, and hopefully I'll also have the time to enjoy YOUR blogs too...

12 comments:

  1. You didn't fool me with your Roman Road!

    Don't strain yourself too much with all that travelling.

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  2. Oh I don't envy you that journey, living off the M3 and travelling to the other end of the M4 (my sister lives in Bristol, my parents near the Solent and me, London. I know those motorways very well!). I adore the colours of chard but forgot to grow any this year - it's certainly a plant to brighten up the winter veg patch! The pale pink is very pretty.

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  3. Hi Mark,

    I have awarded you the Versatile Blog Award. Please visit http://boonton-newjersey.blogspot.com/2012/01/holleygarden-you-have-made-my-day.html to accept it and see the rules. I hope you will do so. Thank You, KL

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    1. Hi Kl; Thank you for this. It's nice to know that someone appreciates my contribution!

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  4. Hi Mark, the second image is my favorite. I could never have guess that the golden yellow leaf was in a puddle

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  5. The leaf almost looks like a rose leaf! Are those hawthorn berries around it or mini rose hips.

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  6. I'm taking master gardener training and these pics will make great flashcards for my leaf study section! printing them out!!! thank you!!!!!

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  7. The close-up shots of leaves really make you look carefully at the finer detail. Lovely.

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  8. I was looking at your "Roman road" and preparing to tell you that I was amazed that it looked just like a leaf, lol.

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  9. The chard is hearty - mine lasted all summer, never bolted and lasted all the way to a hard freeze. The "road" was clever!

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  10. Sue; the berries next to that leaf are ones from the "Fish tree" (sorbus).

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  11. Your Roman Road photo makes me smile. You could tell good stories, Mark!
    I'm curious about those "fishy" smelling blossoms. I wish I could check them out.

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