Sunday 13 January 2013

Colour from the season - Ash grey

It can be a bit bleak in January here on the edge of Exmoor and though there are primroses and more brightly coloured subjects about, I noticed that Ash trees are in bud and I want to document the colours of the Common Ash (fraxinous excelsior) in all seasons while it's still possible.

Ash trees in the U.K. have developed a deadly fungal disease called Ash dieback (Chalara fraxinea), which is about to wipe out Britain's entire (80 million) Ash tree population. One of our toughest hardwoods, steeped in mythology and medicinal folklore, but perhaps I'm not alone in hardly noticing the Ash until now?

So here are the colours of its budding branches - very beautiful actually when you do notice, make the most of them while you still can...



















































...from my seasonal colour sample notebook.