Today would have been my grandfather’s birthday. It’s fair to say that a lot of my observational skill stems from walks that I took with him when I was very small. Nothing was overlooked, a small insect, the colour and name of a wild flower, the shape of a leaf etc, etc. It seems appropriate to mention that before showing you the fourth and final 100 steps of the walk along our local canal.

If you have followed the previous three posts you will remember that the colours were very similar. This part of the walk was towards the end of the return journey, and instead of looking at the waterside I concentrated on the ‘country’ side.

Holly berries! The contrast of red and green, just a dash of red – equal quantities would be a disaster. Isn’t nature clever? It’s the way to accentuate the important bits! These look just like beads, don’t they.

Just a few steps further on, and a beautiful copper carpet is revealed. Not just interesting colour, but shapes and texture to be found there too.

The copper leaves end with a vista of glorious gold and green. The reflected sky in the puddles of water in the foreground add extra interest.

The rich red, almost cranberry red, of the hawthorn berry is the main feature here with the touch of green making the ideal contrast. These ‘beads’ are bigger

Glorious touches of colour in this picture. Purples, Golds (also contrasts), reds, greens, and even blues! A veritable rainbow. All these are emphasised by the background texture.

More texture here too!

Not just colour contrast in this photograph – patterns in the leaves indicate the possibility of adding printing to a surface.

More beads! I couldn’t resist another picture of holly as it is so close to Christmas. I like the extra texture of the out of focus leaves in the background.

This last photograph was taken almost at the end of the path. It was a lovely texture with which to end my 100 steps. I hope you enjoyed coming with me. I’d love it if you joined in and tried it too. Find out more here, and leave your link below. If you missed the previous posts about this walk, or would like to catch up on others in this series this link will take you to a list.

I wonder where I’ll be next week? I don’t have any plans to travel very far, so it will probably be somewhere else within my local neighbourhood.