Fighting back and hanging on

'Walk and Draw' workshop, Elland.  Observing nature on our walk, it's plain to see how strongly the green fights back, already repopulating what was, in the last two centuries, an increasingly heavily industrialised area. 

A broken fence tumbles down towards the river below...

A small gateway in a wall, probably well-used at one time, now almost overgrown... 

Some kind of creeper (last year's growth) tightly twisted around the uprights of a wire fence...

Valerian finding enough grip for roots atop an old mill wall...

Then there is the intricacy of nature's patterns to observe. I'm not sure what the plant above is, nestled in the bracken, but I loved its complex leaf structure, like a loosely packed cabbage.  And then of course there are the dandelion clocks (seedheads), ubiquitous but tiny works of art when studied closely. (So artistic that IKEA have a bestselling lampshade closely mirroring the structure!) 

Also ubiquitous, the Canada geese, intent on raising more even though they've effectively taken over many of our waterways at the expense of other waterbirds. 

My eye was also drawn to little vignettes of artistry - the unconscious marriage, in colour and shape, of elderberry (I think) leaves and graffiti.  Then, a graceful arc of decaying leaves caught in a fence, bleached of all colour and yet full of texture and 'story'.