Winter Wednesday: Colours of Winter

My contribution to Winter Wednesday:Colours of Winter over at Handbook for Nature Study.

At first I was a bit sceptical about seeing any colours other than brown, green and grey so I decided to look at the different shades of these colours that I could find. There were some really cool looking lichens on the old ruins in the woods across the pond. And I realised that there were some pretty different colours in them.

I really need to get a book on lichens to look these up because they were so cool. I love the star shapes on these ones. They look like little starfish.These little spikes were a redish colour so I guess they qualify for some winter colour.

Towards the end of my walk I did find some colour in different places. I have been trying to figure out what kind of bush this is:

The bush itself is about 2.5m high and the thicker branches are brown but the outer branches are red. I can't for the life of me remember what it looks like in the summer even though I go past it all the time.

I also found some lichens growing on our Elderflower bush in the back garden. That was a beautiful yellow colour.

And finally a beautiful sunset from a couple of days ago. It was taken out of my upstairs study window.