Time for autumn walks

This painting is from local (I think she is local anyway, but to which extend I have no idea) artist Susan Thetford.Iit is called Chiltern Beechwoods. I took the picture at a local art exhibition, back in May. Like many of the autumnal paintings that were on display, I really loved it and thought I would use it when the time comes, to accompany a blog post. And now is the time. Since the beginning of September (and even before), it looks and feels like autumn. Autumn is not merely on its way, it has arrived. Sure, the colours are not as bright as on the picture... yet. But they are certainly showing up.

It has been a near perfect September month so far. So this is time to take autumnal walks, preferably in woods. We have plenty of pieces of woodlands around here and beech trees are common in this part of England. They are simply gorgeous in autumn. So it is time to wrap myself in warm clothes (I really missed those too) and find a beech wood nearby to walk in.

Blackbirds in the tree

I took this picture a few days ago, when I was walking home. It is of the beech tree (anyway I think it's a beech tree, I might be wrong) I blogged about before. This time, there was no crow in it but a huge flock of blackbirds, cawing like crazy, flying around it... You don't see them much, of at all, because the branches of tree are now full of leafs. But it was a very eerie spectacle. It felt and especially sounded like in this famous movie. I know I made this comparison fairly often in the last few months. Maybe I am more conscious of it these days, the eerie nature of some of some birds singing, the rather ominous nature of their presence. I don't have much to say about it, apart from this. It was simply a striking scene.

Les vents de Mars

Mars est un mois printanier traître, puisque le printemps est une saison traîtresse. Parfois, mars est un mois délicieusement sinistre. Comme par exemple ce soir. Il vente à écorner les boeufs. Il fait soleil, il fait assez sec, mais le vent souffle comme s'il voulait déraciner les arbres. J'en ai vu quelques uns plier. On entend aussi beaucoup d'oiseau gazouiller et mes amies les corneilles croasser. Enfin bref, c'est la dernière journée de mars et on dirait que le mois a voulu être typique et garder l'allure du dieu qui lui a donné son nom. (Note: c'est pourquoi le titre de ce billet n'est pas fautif avec sa majuscule à mars) Enfin, j'ai décidé, afin d'illustrer ce billet et la fin du mois de télécharger cette seconde photo prise samedi des corneilles dans les branches du grand hêtre. Superbe. Et la photo ne lui rend pas justice.

A murder of crows in the branches

I took this picture today, which was a dark and gloomy March day. This is maybe the most beautiful tree in town. It is big, old, tall (very tall in fact). About five years ago, I took a picture of it in May, which I blogged about here. It might be a beech tree. It is difficult to say for me, I know zilch about trees and this one is bare. When I first took picture of him, I had been impressed with the display of lights and shadows. Now, with the bare branches, it was mainly shadows, a tall dark blotch of ink on a grey sky. But like last time I took a picture of the tree and blogged about it, what also and especially made a strong impression on me were the crows cawing in its branches.

A gathering of crows is commonly called a congregation of crows, which has a rather austere and religious overtone, or a murder of crows, which has a rather sinister one. even though crows have an undeserved bad reputation, I prefer the sinister name. It just sounds better. And I always found the cry of crows to be sinister. It does have a kind of sharp beauty to it. And I do love to see and hear crows in branches like this.