The recent cold spell here in the UK resulted in a rather unfortunate weather pattern at my place of work: a covering of slushy snow that half melted then froze into sheets of ice which remained in situ for the best part of a week. As a result we had to keep the garden closed for a few days whilst we tackled the icy paths and made them safe again for staff, volunteers and visitors.
In between bouts of spreading salt on gravel paths and scraping ice off the flagstones, I managed to take a few snaps of one of the crab apple trees in the kitchen garden. It’s a rather lovely Malus robusta ‘Red Sentinel’ just sang out to me every time I walked past and kept drawing me back to take a few more photos. Those bright, crimson fruits with a dusting of snow, frost or ice were just absolutely joyful; Christmas card perfection. The fruits were a very popular target for the local bird population as well, as robins and blackbirds foraged for whatever scraps of food they could find.
Here’s a selection of the pics1Apologies for any poorly-focused and/or amateurishly composed shots, but I was snapping away with my not-so-great phone camera – which has a habit of ignoring the very obvious thing you want to take a phot of in favour of auto-focusing on some obscure background detail – whilst wearing waterproof thermal gloves, so some of the results were a bit hit-and-miss… I took of that particular Malus in all its wintry glory. Enjoy!
Footnotes
- 1Apologies for any poorly-focused and/or amateurishly composed shots, but I was snapping away with my not-so-great phone camera – which has a habit of ignoring the very obvious thing you want to take a phot of in favour of auto-focusing on some obscure background detail – whilst wearing waterproof thermal gloves, so some of the results were a bit hit-and-miss…