The Architecture of Winter - Shape and Form in the Landscape

By now, the leaves have all fallen to fully reveal the architecture of the garden. Trees and shrubs are unclothed, and the bones of the garden remain. Perhaps the most beautiful expression of this can be found in Japanese gardens, where cascades of maples and spreading cherry trees have been beautifully pruned for decades. Every turn of the path in such a garden is a lesson in the satisfying simplicity of line and form.

But today, on a walk to the pastures in Langley to visit a little black December lamb, I was impressed by the gnarled dignity of old hedges, fruit trees and a weeping willow, surely untouched by pruners for many years. Standing starkly against the winter skies these trees have their own austere and enduring beauty, branches garnished in lichen and moss......

This old willow, a mass of green in summer, has an elegant tumbled grace in winter.

The remnants of an old orchard still bear apples in summer

Up close, even this messy old hedge has its own mossy beauty

These bare, black limbs seem the essence of mid-winter...the nearly-horizontal tree is a favorite of the sheep that rub their backs on it... 

And here's the woolly black baby lamb, born in the dead of winter but surviving just fine....

 

 

Comments

[Chris]

Baa Baa Black Sheep....her fiber will make a fine, black, winter sweater someday!! :)

[Mary Balgaroo]

That's not much of a "dead of winter." Try coming to Utah, Wyoming or pretty muchanywhere north in the country where dead of winter means feet of snow, sub-freezing temperatures, fog and ice, etc. Guess that's why lambs are born in spring here, not mid-winter where you are living. yep, I'm jealous!

[valerie Easton]

We are lucky to keep so much green through the winter...still, it's very unusual to have baby lambs so early, usually they're born in March...

[dreamfalcon]

... and the "messy old hedge" is probably very important to all kind of animals and biodiversity.
Good eye on seeing all the nice things around - not only cute lambs ;-)

[suzi smith]

mmm... i love the texture of bare hedges. We've got some massive willows nearby.. lovely silhouettes with no leaves...

[astro turf perth]

Using these kind of trees for great landscape would be a challenging work. It needs to have a great imagination and skilled individual to transform it to an extraordinary design.

[ryan homes]

I love the amazing shots of the fall scenery that you have provided. It will look great in winter where my imagination does seem to suggest.