Tuesday 7 November 2023

An Autumn Gallery. October 2023. The Golden Highway.

                                                ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN


An old fence post covered in thick moss. Maybe even one harbouring a lost world of minuscule creatures, happily breeding and hidden away for decades, on this completely isolated vertical sided but extremely lush mini mountain summit. After 40 years of taking autumn photographs I know all the best places to find good autumn colours so this is a gallery celebration of the dramatic third act of the seasons. The very essence of autumn. 'The Fall'. A good photo should make you want to step right through into the picture and experience it as if you were there in person. So hopefully this selection will achieve that.

 

I don't need to travel far to find the best areas either. Great Western Road between Drumchapel and Anniesland is as good as any park for autumn colours in trees although I have done recent walks around Knightswood Park, Clydebank Park, and  Rouken Glen Park to broaden the art gallery theme still further.

 

A golden harvest for wildlife with colourful wild berry and fruit trees lining both sides and the middle strip of this golden highway. Yet I have personally seen very few birds here eating them. They are enchanted.


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This is Glasgow's version of the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald Kingdom beyond.

 Strange things do occur here occasionally.


 A cold autumn morning on the golf course beside Rouken Glen Park. What I thought was a stray golf ball at first glance from a distance was not.

 

Bus Stop in autumn 2023.


 


I also pick good light to bring up the colours more. Late afternoon sunlight here.


And some views are just magical. Another realm entirely....... that you can step into.

 

If you are lucky with the weather autumn colours can last from early September to mid November which certainly helps to make the bleak winter months of cold darkness pass quicker before Spring eventually appears again.



 

A dipper enjoying a very clear stream flowing through Rouken Glen park.

 

Autumn park lands are plentiful in the western suburbs of the city.

 

All the colours, sights and smells of a productive October forest floor. Any goodness used up, stored away safety, then turned into a wide range of mirco materials that all growing things desire come spring... easily as efficient as any human food factory turning out products for sale to their customers. The invisible world wide web of tiny mycelium threads that you never normally see without digging them up but without which most things above ground would perish. The original food delivery service perfected over millions of years of evolution.


 


 Great Western Road. Still quiet and serene outside rush hour times.


 Coat of several colours.


Amanita Muscaria.


Autumn foliage. High Knightswood.


 Deer. Shy creatures of the forest edge near The Barrhead Dams.

 

Evening sunlight walking along Great Western Road.

 

The stream in the gorge at Rouken Glen Park.

 

The riches of autumn.

 

The sheer beauty of Glasgow's many parks.


 

 

Pastel Perfection. Misty morning with weak sunlight burning through November's dark mists.

 


Wind blown leaves swirling in a tight circle create an overnight random archipelago on the pavement outside. or ...hinting at a sinkhole effect.

 

...and the pleasures of the open road ahead.
 

15 comments:

Kay G. said...

I truly enjoyed this post showing us the gorgeous autumn colors! Are you sure you are not working for the Glasgow Tourist Board? So beautiful!

Anabel Marsh said...

Lovely collection!

Rosemary said...

Love the post covered in its wonderful green velvet coat of moss. Beautiful leaf colours too - it appears that all of the rain has not hindered their autumn show. We have berries galore here, but old wives tales say we may have a very hard winter - hope they are wrong.

blueskyscotland said...

Thank you Kay. Nope. I just work for fun these days. As Central Belt Scotland's best unofficial Landscape photographer for the last two decades given my body of work on here :o)

blueskyscotland said...

Cheers Anabel.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Rosemary. I've noticed it's been vivid tangerine colour this year on a prominent row of several trees in the photographs (usually maple) that normally turn bright red. Must be something to do with temperature levels or ground nutrients/moisture year by year as this is the first time they have not turned red but stayed deep orange until the end. So there is a very wide range of variation colour possible for individual trees season to season. Not something I've noticed much before.

blueskyscotland said...

As in a completely different colour change from last season.

Carol said...

That first photo is superb!

Fly Agarics have given up here this year - I went with my camera to the local forest specifically to photograph some and there were only 2 left! :-( I also saw a stinkhorn the other day which is seriously rare up here but didn't have my camera. Plus some stupid had knocked it over off its stem :-(

Our colours have been really good for a change over here but the light hasn't really been great for photography so they wouldn't really have showed up on a photo.

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Carol,
I have noticed a difference this autumn ... in that trees I've photographed in past years in my local area have been blood red at the end yet the exact same trees this year, the maples, are now orange. no red at all. So maybe this year it was not cold enough to turn them over from orange to red.
Loads of creatures (slugs and snails?) eat Agarics so they never last long in a pristine state after they emerge despite being posionous to humans and many animals.

Carol said...

Our fly agarics have just finished - flopped over and died at the end of their season. Too wet for them down here I think.

I'm sure the difference in colours this year will be due to higher temperatures.

Russell Craig said...

Hi Alex and Bob,

I really like one of your photos and would like to use it as a reference for creating a logo. What is the best way for me to contact you?

Thanks

Russell Craig

blueskyscotland said...

Hi Russell.
Which photo do you want? Can you just lift it off the blog or do you need a bigger version photo? If so I'll just post that photo up on the blog at the bottom of that post without the BSS tag and you can take it off from there then after a week I'll delete it again afterwards. Easiest way. Bob.

Russell Craig said...

Hi Bob,

The first photo from this post (which is the picture of Ailsa Craig):

https://blueskyscotland.blogspot.com/2016/06/ailsa-craig-trip-kingdom-of-sea-birds.html

I can lift if myself as is. I won't be using the image itself, just wanted to use it as a reference image for creating a line art/sketch depiction of the island and I thought your photo provided a great perspective.

I just wanted to make sure I had your permission to do so.

Thank you!

Russell Craig

blueskyscotland said...

Seeing as it's you No problem Russell. Feel free to take it with my permission. Best of luck with your artwork.

Russell Craig said...

Hah. Well I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Great blog by the way. Very jealous that you get to enjoy the beauty of Scotland...well, at least when the sun comes out!