Green Hellebore and Solar Eclipse

Well, today was the day that I decided to go back to the wood near Abbotsbury to see if the Green Hellebores I saw there almost three weeks ago were in flower yet. Not only were the ones I saw before now flowering but there were many more plants than I had spotted last time. I think some were hidden away underneath some ferns when I was last there. I clambered down into the stream which runs in a very deep gully and some of the flowers were at a perfect height for photos.

 The plants are clinging to this vertical face..

Here I am in action.

 Obviously the cammo gear isn't really necessary, nice to see how well it works though.

Green Hellebore - Helleborus viridis 

Exquisite!

There were some lovely patches of this too..

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage - Chrysosplenium oppositifolium

On leaving the woods it was good to see that the sun was visible through a thin veil of cloud, so once back at the car we waited for the eclipse to begin. The clouds became intermittent and the conditions were perfect to be able to take photographs of the phenomenon. Whilst behind layers of cloud the eclipse could be easily viewed with the naked eye. The light became very watery and atmospheric but where we were we didn't notice any difference in the behaviour of birds, as has been reported elsewhere. It had been rather foggy when we arrived so I suppose they were just attuned to it being rather gloomy already. Photos weren't too difficult with the super-zoom camera. Here's a selection of my better efforts.

The watery light seemed to pick out all the small hillocks within the field, it was very atmospheric.

 It looked like the grin on the Cheshire Cat

This is my favourite shot as the clouds over the sun meant I got it in focus rather than just a burnt out area. If you look closely there is a small sunspot just visible. 

Same shot cropped to show sunspot better.

View it in full size and it really shows up well.