Alder catkins

Short walk today in blustery snow showers and biting wind. Nothing much stood out as good photograph material until, as usual, I started looking a bit more closely at the vegetation. The pattern and colours in these male Alder catkins was really interesting once I focused in - like a group of exotic caterpillars. The female catkins, borne on the same tree, are less colourful and more rigid, like miniature fir cones.