Green stuff

Nature presents a vast range of textures and appearance, mostly in shades of green and brown, hence the topic sub-title. These photographs come from East Lancashire around Blackburn and Great Harwood and were all taken in mid-summer:














The viaduct in the last photo once carried the Midland Railway's Colne - Skipton line and has an arc (in plan view) of approximately 35 degrees. As they say, there's a prototype for everything, although I do recall one leading figure back in the 1960's pontificating in the model press, bemoaning the errors being perpetuated by modellers who built such curved viaducts and bridges on their layouts because, "such things do not exist on the real thing!".

Great pics once again Will.

The viaduct is quite a beautiful shot, but I do like the second shot of the old gnarly Willow on the lean, fantastic !

Cheers, Gary.

Hello Gary and thank you. I think its my 'artistic' nature. I can't help looking for the best angle in even the most mundane subject. That old willow is my favourite tree in Crow Wood, near where I used to live. I love the way he's lived and died there and they still can't get rid of him. When my girls were little they used to love clambering around his branches, so I guess you could say he's part of the family!

Typical 'open' English woodland. This is the eastern side of Crow Wood near Blackburn:






Typical ground cover for this type of environment; fallen leaves which can form deep drifts if left undisturbed:


Another view of the old fallen willow seen in Post #1:

By contrast, the western end of Crow Wood is a much wilder, less frequented area. Hillier than the east side, with deep valleys channelling water run-off, muddy ground, bogs and hidden streams. Note the abundance of parasitic plant growth and moss in this wetter environment:

Three photos of a dead tree near Great Harwood in Lancashire:

Parkland with grass mown to within an inch of its life. Witton Park, Blackburn:


River Blakewater, Pleasington near Blackburn:


Packhorse bridge, Pleasington. Just upstream of the previous photo and known locally as Devil's Bridge because of a hand-shaped depression in one of the parapet stones, reputedly left there by Old Nick himself. Lancashire has abundant legends of Old Nick (a.k.a. Old Blacky) and his many visitations. We must have been a terrible lot in olden times!:


Ivy growing on the walls of the old stables, Witton Park, Blackburn: