My friend took this photo so I hope they don’t mind me sharing it. But I wanted to find out what causes this sort of overgrowth. I’ve seen twigs fused together before but is it a virus or a fungus? Or is it caused by insects. A gall? Any info?
Tag: Twigs
Dappled sky
Washed with Amber and lilac, gold highlights. Twigs sweeping the sky. Painting it with their fronds. Clouds form flocks of flying sheep, running home as night arrives. A symphony of colours shifting as they are viewed. Blue darkens to black, the colour I’d drained out of the sky until one solitary glimmer remains. Then the light of stars spring out. Tiny pinpricks in the firmament. Moon rise. The glow of it shines through a lowering fog. Time for bed and dreams.
Winter tree
I’m doing winter paintings now. First one started, winter tree. I’m trying to get the twigs and snow correct. Just working from a random free photo off the Internet as we don’t have anything as picturesque as this in the area, plus of course its raining not snowing! More later…
Nest building
We have a couple of magpies in the garden. They have decided to build an untidy nest in the top of a tall sycamore tree. I know their reputation for collecting things to line their nests with, but today I witnessed both of them picking up twigs over twice their body lengths. I watched the resulting tangle with amusement. Both of them had the long twigs held horizontal in their beaks. The trouble was, like a dog with too long a stick trying to get through a door, the sticks got caught on branches as they tried to fly up to the nest. Once the twig fell back to the ground and it took the magpie a few minutes to get it firmly back in its beak and properly balanced.
Seeing them both high in the tree top trying to tuck bits into their nest was fascinating. I do worry for other local birds as they have been known to steal baby birds but I do admire their tenacity.
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