The Nature Table: November

By November, the landscape has been pared back….has assumed a starker outline.

Leaves have fallen, stems withered, flowers died, seed heads shrivelled.  The colour has leached from the land.  There’s a shutting down, a withdrawal, in preparation for winter.  What energy remains is garnered within the plants to sustain their diminished forms until spring.

My eye is drawn to the spare stems with their interesting silhouettes, to the waving grasses and rusty bracken.  Hidden by an abundance of leaves for much of the year and overshadowed by flamboyant flowers, the structure of plants finally reveals itself as the year draws to a close.  Everything, after all, has its moment of glory.

To honour and recognise these modest forms, I’m giving the nature table over to them this month.  I’ll let the remaining berries and blooms live on where they are; and instead I’ll gather dry and dying plants, willowy weeds and curling twigs.

This month belongs to them.

Comments

[Angela Vular]

Helen,
I know I've said it before and I'll say it again....I love your photographs! This is gorgeous....the simplicity...the subtle hues of color...the bareness of the plants...love it!

[Dead Weeds And DancingDead Wee]

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