NATURAL ART & ODDITIES
There is just so much design in nature that this needs its own section. And sometimes this just odd.
Ivy on Moss on Bark in Balloch Park
A tree sheds bark and moss takes the opportunity to move in. Fishers Wood. November.
This amazing filigree leaf was found in August in the Fishers Wood.
The peeling bark of a birch tree in Levebgrove Park in November. Look closer and you see the linear patterns left after sections of the papery bark have flaked off. It has spontaneously created its own little bark folded ribbon. All delightful in the bright crisp winter sunshine. Betula papyrifera (paper birch, also known as (American) white birch and canoe birch) is native to northern America.. 
A captive of time. A long dead tree still languishes within this metal guard in front of the one time tourist information centre in Balloch; itself once Balloch Station.
The doorway into the netherworld of the woodland elf. Fishers Wood.
The beauties of a November woodland carpet.
Oak leaves with an early frost.
The iced over water of the flooded woods near Fisher Wood. These woods are adjacent the lade that is fed off the Leven and are flooded anually, sometimes twice a year. Patterns form around vegetation and can be particularly decorative as the water level recedes again. (This area has since been felled and infilled as an extension of the light industrial area).
Abstract bark. Drumkinnon Woods.
The Glooby Eye is watching you. Drumkinnon Woods.
Many large trees came down in Storm Eowyn of early 2025. Internal decay obviously means a weaker stability-to-mass and structure and several fell. When sawn to clear up the debris showed us some interesting natural scupltures.
Hey. Is that a moorhen? Nae, Hen, that is a mooring, hen. You need to look more closely. And anyway, moorhens are black and red and it is the coots that are black and white. That there is a mooring float for the boats.
It can be surprising what you encounter down on the banks of the River Leven. Here is the rare slinky fronded riverine beastie sunning itself for some early morning warnth before slithering back into the cold water.
Is this proof that Flamingo Land at Balloch towards is sunk? ["Flamingo Land" has been a very contentious proposed development stretching alongside the Leven towards Loch Lomond. The name itself has been interpreted as indicative of inappropriate approach].
