In November Morning Sun

The ground frost of early morning melted quickly today, as the sun came up. Light from the east shone through canopies of leaves on the lime tree near the pond.

A solitary rose, its outer petals nipped by the cold, stood out against tree ivy clambering up a fence.

On a rare, blue skied morning, the reds and golds of the Liquid Amber gave an illusion of health and vigour on the side that faced the sun.

On its sheltered side, the wounded trunk still shows its scars and the whole awaits reshaping by a tree surgeon when its leaves have gone.

A Red Admiral butterfly escaped my camera as it flew in fits and starts among holly leaves. This bush by the Forest gate is one of the few that has berries this autumn. When migrant thrushes arrive on the next east wind, the berries will soon be gone.

Jay and the Grey One were finishing their breakfast hay as I walked the field boundaries to check the fences.

The others were enjoying a morning drink.

Oak, beech and holly mingle in the old, overgrown hedgerow between field and  Forest heath.

The beech trees are at their most beautiful now...........

....but the upper canopies have lost their leaves to recent winds. Beech mast is scarce this year, but  there is promise in new buds for next spring, shining silver against a cold, blue sky in the pale November sunlight.