No Time to Stand and Stare

Tags

busyness, cataract operation, crocus, Diary, driving, gardening, horse brasses, iris reticulata, medical appointments, muddy lanes, Plough Sunday, Plough Sunday service, pulmonaria, rosemary, Rumburgh Church, snowdrop, sparrowhawk, storm damage, Suffolk, the plough, wintertime, witch-hazel

Both our cars are covered in mud all the time; they are in a worse state now than in the photo! Most of our lane is inches deep in sloppy mud and it is hardly worth our while to wash the cars.

This year has been crazily busy so far and there has been no time for even a short walk since the new year.  At last, I have managed to catch-up with all my blog reading, I’ve sorted out all my bank statements and receipts and have got rid of large amounts of paper.  I have even spent a little time in the garden weeding and tidying-up the flowerbeds; there has been very little cold weather and the weeds have grown and grown!

Rosemary ( Rosmarinus ‘Miss Jessup’s Upright’) in flower in January

Witch Hazel; the stems covered in lichen.

Crocus

Crocus

Snowdrops. These and the crocus above grow under the crabapple tree. It has got somewhat weedy there in recent years!

Iris reticulata

Iris reticulata

Pulmonaria

I have taken a Morning Prayer service at church and attended a meeting with others in our Benefice who take church services.

Plough Sunday Service 12th January. Richard took this service very nicely. Much of the congregation is made up of members of ‘Old Glory’ the Molly Men and their friends and supporters

The decorated plough; the star of the Plough Sunday service.

Look at these beautiful horse brasses!

Most of my time has been spent in the car, taking Elinor to the station on her university days, taking Mum to her many hospital appointments, taking myself to hospital and doctor’s appointments, dental appointments, eye clinic appointments and grocery shopping trips.  Mum has had both her cataracts removed and such a load has been lifted from her and my shoulders!  She has so much more sight than we thought and the fear that she may not be able to look after herself and live alone as she wishes has receded for a while.  She is approaching her 90th birthday and though she tires easily and is somewhat twisted and stooping because of arthritis, she is still able to cook and look after herself.  Richard and I had to visit her the week before last to repair her hedge and fence, damaged by the first of our storms.  Mum hadn’t been able to do any gardening for some months because she couldn’t see, and the garden has become overgrown with brambles and nettles, thistles and other unwelcome weeds.  I had done a few jobs for her and so had Richard but the weeds had taken over and the fence that broke in the storm was covered in enormous brambles.

A rather beautiful female Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus ) who observed me taking her photo

This coming week I only have three appointments to keep and none for Mum except for taking her to church on Ash Wednesday.  I’m at the hospital all day on Tuesday having eye pressure tests, I have a hygienist appointment at the dentist on Wednesday and a hair appointment in Norwich on Thursday.  Housework has been a bit hit-and-miss lately and I hope to be able to catch-up with all my chores at home very soon.

This is just a short post to let you know what has been happening.  My next post will probably be about one of our days out last year, or even the year before that!  I have plenty of old photos but hardly any new ones!

May Flowers

Tags

Astrantia, Californian lilac, Clematis, cowslip hybrid, euphorbia, flowers, garden, glaucous sedge, Goat Willow, gooseberry, Hawthorn, horse chestnut, iris, plants, Ribwort Plantain, rose, scabious, Spindle, Suffolk, thrift, Thyme-leaved Speedwell, trees, Welsh onion

Let me take you back in time…again….

A selection of photos of plants and flowers seen in May, this year.  Please click on any of these images to enlarge them.

A flowerbed on the south side of the house

The temperatures began to improve during May and the leaves on the fig tree (on the right of the photo) began to come out.  The perennial plants also put on a lot of growth and flowers appeared.

Iris

Astrantia

Astrantia have interesting flowers

Thrift

Scabious

The Montana clematis continued to produce plenty of highly scented flowers from where it grows on the trellis next to the garden shed.

‘Canary Bird’ rose

Such a lovely yellow rose!

When we had the garden room built last year I had to move many of my plants out of the way. They ended up here on the edge of one of the vegetable beds.

These are wonderful pale lilac iris. I failed to get a decent photo of them.

Another attempt to catch the beauty of this iridescent flower.

A couple of days later more iris had appeared in the bed near the house.

I might move this iris away from the purple and blue ones in the autumn. It is an interesting colour but is a little overwhelmed by its neighbours.

It was a good year for iris.

Euphorbia. This is a small perennial sub-shrub with interesting colours in its leaves and bracts.

All around our garden are hybrids, like this one, between the wild cowslip and garden polyanthas and primulas.  This plant decided to grow in a gravelly area next to a drain and one of the water butts.

Richard has a Californian Lilac in his shrubbery. It was glorious this year!  The bees loved it and I think there are a few in this photo.

Gooseberry. If you look carefully you will see many tiny gooseberries. Unfortunately we didn’t protect the bush from the birds and we got no berries at all. One day they were all there and the next they weren’t. We have never needed to cover the bush before.

The welsh onion in the herb garden went crazy this year!

As well as the plants I have in flower and vegetable beds, there are the wild ones that I love to find.

Thyme-leaved Speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia )

This is a minute-flowered speedwell I find in the lawn and in the grass path round the pond.  It forms patches of flowers as the stems lie flat along the ground and send out roots from nodes.  The flower stems are upright.

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

Hawthorn

Country people think it very bad luck to bring hawthorn blossom indoors and woe betide you if you destroy a hawthorn!

Goat Willow ( Salix caprea) with its fluffy seeds.

The wood of the Goat Willow is very soft and used to be made into clothes pegs, rake teeth and hatchet handles.

Horse Chestnut ( Aesculus hippocastanum) blossom

Horse Chestnuts were introduced to Britain from the Balkans in the 16th century.  ‘Conkers’ weren’t played with the fruit of the tree until the 18th century. Before that, the game was played with cobnuts from Hazel trees or with snail shells.  The name ‘conkers’ derives from ‘conqueror’.

Sedge

I am not very good at identifying sedges, reeds, rushes and grasses but I think this might be Glaucous Sedge (Carex flacca).

Ribwort Plantain ( Plantago lanceolata)

I wonder if children still play the old games with Ribwort.  In one of the games, the stalk is held between the thumb and forefinger and the bottom of the stalk is wrapped round the flower-head in a loop.  When the loop is tugged sharply the flower-head is ‘fired’ and often travels a long way.  I read that a form of ‘conkers’ can be played with Ribwort by keeping the flowerhead on its long stem and using it to attempt to knock a rival’s flower-head off.  A couple of local names for Ribwort are ‘fighting cocks’ and ‘kemps’ from the Anglo-Saxon ‘cempa‘ meaning ‘a warrior’.

Spindle (Euonymous europaeus )

The wood of spindle is very hard and dense and pale coloured and from ancient times was used for making spindles.  The wood is also known as skewerwood and pegwood and also makes high quality charcoal.  The tree has an unpleasant smell if bruised and the fruit is an emetic.  In olden days, the leaves and seeds were powdered and this powder was dusted onto the skin of children and animals to drive away lice.

With apologies for the length of this post.

Dunwich Beach and Dingle Marshes

Tags

beach, birds, buck's-horn plantain, common scurvygrass, Dingle Marshes, Dunwich beach, gorse, little egret, plants, reeds, sea campion, seashore, sheep's sorrel, shingle, Suffolk, wader

On May Bank Holiday, the first Monday after May Day, Rumburgh village always holds a fair and Rumburgh church always has the cake stall – a money-earner, though not as good as the tea tent.  This year, I had made a honey and ginger cake which Richard and I delivered to the stall along with a quantity of our rhubarb, which usually sells well.  We didn’t stay long as we had a few chores to do at home and we had planned to go to the seaside in the afternoon.

The day was cool and breezy and rain was forecast for late in the afternoon so Elinor, Richard and I set off as soon as we had had our lunch.

We found ‘Thelma’ hauled far up on the shingle.

We looked inside her and what did we find?

A dried-up dogfish tail.

The wind was cold and strong on the beach and the spray from the waves was being blown about.

Looking north up the beach….

…and southwards.

Inland, behind the shingle bank, is Dingle Marshes Nature Reserve, looked after by the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and The Suffolk Wildlife Trust.

Richard contemplating the view. It was good to be out of the wind!

Plenty of Sea Campion (Silene uniflora) were in flower.

A Little Egret ( Egretta garzetta) was wading through the marsh

Here it is again, marching purposefully on!

Another view of the marshes with a bright yellow ribbon of Gorse (Ulex europaeus)

Common Scurvygrass (Cochlearia officinalis)

A plant of saltmarshes and increasingly, along the sides of roads that have been salted during the winter.  (Danish Scurvygrass (Cochlearia danica) however, is seen more regularly than Common Scurvygrass on roadsides).  Common Scurveygrass has almost circular fleshy leaves with a few blunt teeth along the edges.  The seedpods are spherical and a few can be seen on a flower-cluster close to the centre-right edge of this photo.  In that same cluster of flowers and seedpods is a tiny yellow-beige 16 spot ladybird which fees on pollen, fungi and nectar.

In the past, scurvy was a very common disease, often fatal, in those who spent much of their time at sea.  Their diet was restricted to salt pork and dried biscuit and they had no fresh fruit or vegetables.  Many on land also had restricted diets so it was a happy day when herbalists discovered that scurvygrass, with its high vitamin C content, was one of the foods that prevented the disease. It became the fashion in 17th century England to take a glass of scurvygrass water every morning. The leaves were made into a beer called scurvygrass ale.

The gorse was so bright and cheerful.

Gorse is also known as furze or whin and grows on the acidic soil of heathland and close to the sea.  It is an excellent fuel and burns quickly and fiercely in dry weather causing heath fires to spread.  It was grown near houses so that washing could be lain out to dry on it and the prickles would prevent the clothes from blowing away.

There was plenty of Sheep’s Sorrel (Rumex acetosella ) with its red flower-spikes.

Sheep’s Sorrel is more sprawling than Common Sorrel and is usually found on very poor sandy soil.  The leaves contain the chemical calcium oxalate which tastes acid; the name ‘sorrel’ comes from the old French word for ‘sour’ (‘surele’).

Lovely rosettes of the leaves of Buck’s-horn Plantain ( Plantago coronopus)

The seeds of this plantain exude a large amount of mucilage when they get wet.  This gummy stuff was used in France to stiffen muslins and other woven fabrics.

There were paths through the reeds.

And an approaching rain shower.

A small wader

Here it is again. Apologies for the poor quality of my picture.

This is the same bird in both photos but I am unable, through ignorance, to identify it.  It may be a sandpiper of some sort.  I am sure someone will be able to suggest a name.  It moved about very quickly.

An information board.

Please click on any of my photos to enlarge them.

Another information board.

We soon left for home before the rain arrived and had a warming cup of tea.

 

Spring Odds and Ends – April

Tags

amelanchier, blackthorn, bullace, cuckooflower, Damson, garden, garden plants, ground-ivy, horse chestnut, Lady's Smock, lesser celandine, lichen, Mallard, marsh marigold, mining bees, montana clematis, pasque flower, Pear, pond, Suffolk, trees, wild cherry, wild flowers

Blackthorn ( Prunus spinosa) in flower

This was the view from our front door on the 1st of April.  The rather untidy Blackthorn trees growing on the verge on the other side of our hedge looked like they were snow-covered; the blossom was so plentiful.

A mining bee nest-tunnel

Just over a week after I took the photo of the Blackthorn I was finding bee nests all over the garden.  Some were plain ones like the photo above….

Mining bee Nest -burrows

…and these ones.

Mining bee nest-burrow

But this one (the burrow is in the shadow of one of the seed-pods) has been decorated with twigs, bits of wood, stone and seed-pods! I wonder if this is just by chance or if not, were these to make it easier to find or, is the bee just more of an individual, more artistic than most other bees?  I have found other nest-burrows seemingly marked with twigs and stones.

Wild Cherry ( Prunus avium)

This is one of our wild cherry trees just coming into blossom in the middle of April.  The house on the left of the photo is that of our next-door neighbours and this long thin strip of land, in-between their garden and our leylandii hedge on the right, belongs to us and is where the former owners of our house used to park their combine harvester, so we are told.  We have planted a few trees on this strip of land; you can see a couple of hollies and another cherry has decided to grow here too.

Wild cherry blossom from one of our other cherry trees.

The first Pasque Flower

The same plant a week or so later

The flowerbed on the south side of the house. As you can see, it is very stony.

Amelanchier in flower

Marsh Marigold or King-cup ( Caltha palustris) next to the pond

The same plant a week later

I have posted photos of this lichen-covered tree-trunk before

A closer look at the different lichens

Abandoned goose nest on the island

For the first time since we have lived here we had no nesting geese on the island on our pond.  They built a nest and I am sure they began laying an egg each day prior to incubation but something happened and the nest was abandoned.  The water level in the pond was very low and it would have been easy for a fox to cross the water and get to the nest.  There has always been danger from mink and otters but up til now the geese have coped with them.  A fox is different and much bigger.  This is only a guess – there may have been other reasons; I don’t know.

Cuckooflower/Lady’s Smock (Cardamine pratensis ) next to the pond

New Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum ) leaves and flower buds

We have a couple of spindly Damson or Bullace (Prunus domestica ssp. insititia ) trees growing in the scrubby area near our pond. This is a photo of the blossom and new leaves.

Pear blossom. We recently pruned and topped our pear tree as it was getting enormous. We should still get quite a lot of fruit this year, if all goes well.

Lesser Celandine ( Ficaria verna) and Ground-ivy ( Glechoma hederacea)

The Montana clematis flowered at the end of the month

A drake Mallard swimming on the pond.

I have a few more April photos I would like to share but I will save them for a separate post.

Spring Odds and Ends – March

Tags

blackthorn, blossom, Brown Hare, Bugle, cherry-plum tree, daffodils, daisy, Dog's Mercury, early dog-violet, flowers, garden, grape hyacinth, lesser celandine, leveret, March, Narcissus Rip van Winkle, Periwinkle, plants, pond, primroses, silver-laced primula, Spindle, St Mary's church Homersfield, Suffolk, Suffolk Lane, trees

Not having posted anything for over two months I have a number of photographs of things I’ve seen on my travels or in the garden.  This post will be a selection of these photos.

View from my kitchen window

This photo was taken with my phone early one March morning.  You can see the maple leaf sticker on the glass which works well at preventing birds from crashing into the window and injuring themselves.  Just outside the window is my witch-hazel which is planted in a large pot and also a Japanese flowering-cherry tree tied to canes, in a different pot.  We keep both trees up close to the front of the house to protect them from wind damage.  On the other side of our drive you can see the first of the daffodils in flower along the edge of the ditch.  What really excited me was the sight of a leveret, a young hare ( lepus europaeus), crouched in the grass.  Richard had had a sight of this young animal in the garden a couple of days before this and I was so pleased to see it for myself.

Leveret

I took this picture with my smaller camera from the utility room window and you can see how damp with dew everything was, including the leveret.  It stayed with us for a few days, hardly ever moving from its ‘form’, the nest in the grass it had made for itself.

The leveret’s form

Cherry-plum tree (Prunus cerasifera )covered in blossom

When this tree first grew I assumed it was an early-flowering blackthorn tree as they can look very similar.  However, a few years ago I happened to see some of its fruit before the birds ate it all and realised my mistake.

cherry-plum blossom

cherry-plum blossom

cherry-plum blossom

Silver-laced Primula

A year and a half ago I was trying to get rid of Common Nettle and Black Bryony in a flowerbed full of primulas and hellebores.  The only way to deal with them was to remove the plants I wanted before tackling the ones I didn’t.  I planted some of the primulas at the edge of a bed Richard grows dahlias in.  This March I was pleased to see that my treasured silver-laced primula had survived the move and two winters.  I still haven’t finished working on that weedy bed!  The Primula has a pretty silver edge to its petals.

Early Dog-violet ( Viola reichenbachiana )

We have these early violets growing in the grass round our pond.

Large pond

Large pond

Our large pond in March.  The water-level is very low due to insufficient rainfall for a year.

The front hedge and ditch

A week or two on from when the photo of the leveret was taken and the daffodils are all coming out.

I love these little Narcissus ‘Rip van Winkle’!

Grape Hyacinth (Muscari ), Bugle (Ajuga reptans ), Variegated Lesser Periwinkle(Vinca minor ) and Spindle (Euonymous ) ‘Emerald n Gold’.

This is a very narrow bed alongside the rear of the garage next to the back door.  All the flowers are blue and two of the plants have variegated yellow and green leaves.  However, just to prove that nothing goes exactly to plan, the bed also contains a red-berried Firethorn ( Pyracantha) which has creamy white flowers; this plant was here when we moved here and the birds and bees love it.

St. Mary’s church at Homersfield

We attended church here in March and I thought it looked lovely in the sunshine.

Primroses (Primula vulgaris )

That same day I walked round the garden and then out onto the verge next to the lane  beyond our hedge and found these primroses in flower.  Garden primulas are able to flower at any time of the year as long as it isn’t too hot or too cold.  Wild primroses, however, have their season and late March is the best time to see them round here.

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa )

There is a tangle of Blackthorn on the verge and it was just coming into flower.  You can see our garden over the other side of the hedge.

Here is the Blackthorn on the verge.

It is a very untidy tree with suckers but it has blossom like snow and the fruit (sloes) in the autumn are used for flavouring gin, among other things.

Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis )

We have this rather insignificant plant growing under all our hedges and in amongst the trees near the large pond.  It is often a sign of old woodland and won’t tolerate being disturbed; it fades away.  The male and female flowers are on separate plants.

The daffodils at the end of March

Daisy (Bellis perennis )

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna )

Here is this sunshiny little flower peeping out from inbetween Common Nettles and Ground Elder in the ditch.

These were the highlights of March this year.  I hope to begin an April post as soon as I have published this one.  Whether I’ll be able to finish it and publish it in the next day or so only time will tell!

Another Catch Up Post!

Tags

plants, spring, Suffolk, walking

As you know, we have been busy with home improvements this year so haven’t had the time to go on our usual walks very often and I haven’t taken as many photos as usual.  Richard and I did manage a walk or two in April along the lanes and over the fields.

Our local farmer has taken to sheep farming in recent years and this year he coppiced many of his overgrown hedges and then waited to see what came up again.  He has selected the plants he wishes to retain in the hedges and has cut out the rest.  He has put up stock fencing next to the new slim-line hedge and all is looking very different now.

We took our usual walk across the fields just after the coppicing had been done. All the heaps of wood were burnt and you can see a smouldering heap of wood-ash in the centre of this picture.

The last time we had walked this route there had been a thick hedge just in front of the ditch in the foreground.

I was quite concerned about the loss of the hedges because they are usually full of nesting, singing birds in the spring.  However, the farmer does care about the local wildlife and had left reassuring notices next to the ex-hedges stating what he was intending to do.

A view across the open fields. This walk was taken at the beginning of April while the weather was still bright and warm.

This oak tree had been blown down in storm ‘Doris’. The green you can see is the ivy that had been growing up the tree trunk. Most healthy trees can cope with ivy growing on them and this one had seemed to be healthy.

An upright tree this time, with holes it in, probably made by woodpeckers.

Another view of the fields and that blue sky!

Red Dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum) and Groundsel (Senecio vulgaris)

The Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa) was very good this spring.

This rather dull and unassuming little plant (not a clear photo, I’m afraid) has the interesting name of Sticky Mouse-ear (Cerastium glomeratum)! The leaves are the shape of a mouse’s ear and they are also sticky as you can see in the photo; the leaves are covered with grains of sand.

I found yet another Barren Strawberry plant. (Potentilla sterilis)

It is easy to tell the difference between a Wild Strawberry and a Barren Strawberry even if there are no flowers to be seen.  The leaves of the Barren Strawberry are a mid-green colour and are matt whereas the Wild Strawberry leaves are shiny and yellow-green.  The leaves of both plants are toothed but the Barren Strawberry’s terminal tooth (the one at the tip of each leaflet) is smaller and shorter than the ones next to it.  You can see this quite clearly on the photo above.  The Wild Strawberry’s terminal tooth is as long as or longer than the ones next to it.  The flowers are different too.  The Barren Strawberry flowers have large gaps between the petals and the sepals are clearly seen in the gap.  The Wild Strawberry’s petals are close together and the sepals are hidden behind them.

A Blackthorn hedge in flower

A view of St. Peter’s church tower in the distance

One of my favourite views through a gap in the hedge

Another view from our walk. The field close-by has barley or wheat growing in it; the yellow field in the distance is of oil-seed rape.

A field of Oil-seed Rape

This photo is of the bank of a ditch and shows the lumps of chalk that can be found in the clay soil here

The verge at the side of the lane was covered with Lesser Celandines (Ficaria verna)

Another view across the fields…

…and another!

Ash tree flowers ( Fraxinus excelsior)

Most of our fields are surrounded by deep ditches.

Annual Mercury (Mercurialis annua)

Most of the Mercury that grows here is the perennial Dog’s Mercury which is found in (sometimes) large swathes under hedges and in the woodland.  The Mercury in the photo above is the Annual Mercury which doesn’t grow in swathes and is branched (unlike the Dog’s Mercury).  It is not a native plant but has been here for at least 1000 years, introduced from mainland Europe.

Cowslips (Primula veris)

A pond at the side of the lane

The last of the Primroses (Primula vulgaris)

Part of St. Margaret South Elmham common

Another Blackthorn hedge

Blackthorn blossom

Another short walk we took was to view the orchids flowering along the verge near to us.

Early Purple Orchids (Orchis mascula)

Early Purple Orchids

We also saw purple Bugle (Ajuga reptans) and Dandelions (Taraxacum agg.)

Bugle

This seems to be a Cowslip/Primrose cross

An over-exposed and out-of-focus photo of Lady’s-smock/ Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis)

Richard and I also called in at our neighbour Cordelia’s Daffodil Sunday when every year she opens her beautiful garden to the public in aid of St. Margaret’s church.

Her garden is full of spring flowers

The weather was perfect for the open garden this year

The Old Rectory

Looking towards the church from the Old Rectory

More flowers

Daffodil Sunday

Daffodil Sunday

The drive up to the house

I apologise for the length of this post!

My music choice this time is ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ by George Butterworth

Thanks for visiting!

A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 2

Tags

blossom, butterfly, daffodils, flowers, fruit trees, gardening, plants, spring flowers, Suffolk, sunset

Let me take you back in time……

The daffodils this spring were marvellous!  We had a few warm days at the beginning of April that brought the flowers forward and then from Easter onwards the weather was decidedly chilly.  Very dry but chilly and with very little sunshine.

The white daffodils look just like butterflies when a breeze catches them!  Most of these flowers are scented as well.

The blossom on the fruit trees was good this spring.

Wild Cherry

Wild Cherry blossom

Weeping Crabtree

Weeping Crabtree blossom

Crabtree ‘Evereste’

‘Evereste’ blossom

Crabtree ‘Harry Baker’

‘Harry Baker’ blossom

Greengage

Greengage blossom

Damson blossom

Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom

Other trees with blossom looked wonderful this spring too.

Amelanchier

Amelanchier blossom

The Blackthorn at the end of our drive

The Pussy Willow was covered in fuzzy flowers

I took photos of some of the plants in the garden.

The Spirea in Richard’s new shrub border was very bright and beautiful.

A pretty primula had planted itself in one of the ditches that surround our garden

We have a number of orange and red cowslips that grow here and there about the garden. I have started to gather them into one place so they don’t get mowed before they set seed.

The King-cups on the bank of the pond looked cheerful.

Primroses and Anemone blanda

The clematis flowered at the end of the month and filled the garden with scent.

Clematis flowers

Last autumn I ordered some tulips and planted them in large tubs.  I was glad I did when I saw the damage the deer had wreaked on those planted in the borders!  I covered the tubs in wire mesh and left them at the back of the house to over-winter.  I had no mouse, vole or deer damage at all!

These lovely tulips look more like peonies! Because of the cool spring they were in flower for nearly a month.

This is a male Holly Blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus). There were a number of these flying in the garden at the end of April.

A sunset seen from the back of the house

This post has taken me weeks to write because I have been so busy and tired!  I thought about abandoning it a couple of times because of its lateness but decided to post it after all and I hope you will forebear with me.

My choice of music is ‘Schmetterling’ (Butterfly) by Grieg, one of his Lyric Pieces.

Thanks for visiting!

A Quiet Spring – March and April Part 1

Tags

birds, churches, flowers, garden, insects, spring, Suffolk, sunset

We weren’t very adventurous this spring, staying close to home and taking things easy, so there wasn’t too much to blog about.

A visit to St Michael’s church on the first mild spring day in March

We admired the ‘Narnia’ lamp post by the gate.

We were unable to tell the time as the sun failed to shine.

The peaceful churchyard.

Marsh Marigold (Caltha palustris ) The flowers are in the centre of the bloom and have no petals. The 5 – 8 petal-like sepals are bright shiny yellow.

Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)  It was very sluggish and was still in the grass outside the church when we came out again.

A pair of Greylags (Anser anser) took up residence in our garden as they usually do each spring

We enjoy their company.

They constructed a nest on the island in the middle of the big pond but after ten days it was abandoned.  Feathers were spread everywhere. We don’t know what happened but we suspect an otter or an American mink was to blame.

The abandoned nest.

After we lost our summerhouse in the storm earlier this year we spent some time clearing the area behind it and discovered this tree with the deformed trunk. What could have caused this?

We enjoy seeing all the birds that visit our garden including the Pied Wagtails (Motacilla alba). Not a good shot as the bird hurried into the dappled shade just as I took its picture.

A sunset seen from the back of the house.

On a visit to our church at Rumburgh we saw this Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos) resting in the shade of a gravestone.

Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the churchyard

I love the informality of our country churchyards and I like to see the wild flowers there. The wild flowers are just as much God’s work as any garden flower or exotic bloom.  They have a haven in our churchyards and should be safe from herbicides.

Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis)

Richard on his way to church

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Meanwhile, back in my garden…..

My Pieris with its new leaves of red and its little white bell flowers

I have been growing these hyacinth bulblets on in shallow tubs and they are now ready for planting out in the garden to flower next spring.

 

Scented narcissi and pink aubretia

Elinor gave me some more aubretia, a mauve variety, as a gift on Mothering Sunday

Lathyrus and scilla

Pasque flowers. These began flowering just a couple of days after Easter Sunday.

I had a large patch of these red saxifrage but the deer scraped most of them up. I’m hoping they will spread again.

My music choice is ‘Glorious’ sung by The Pierces

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Spring Flowers: March

Tags

Celandines, cherry-plum, daffodils, flowers, garden, gardening, lathyrus, primroses, scilla, Suffolk, violets, wild flowers

I managed to find a number of flowers to photograph in my garden this March.

We have areas in our garden that are left wild. This is one of the many violets that bloomed in March. I think this is an Early Dog Violet (Viola reichenbachiana )

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna ).  Not only are the flowers so shiny and buttercup-yellow but the leaves are interesting too. They are patterned and blotchy with different shades of green and then there is the strange black line down the centre of the leaf looking like it was drawn carelessly with a felt pen.

This is all that was left of some of my favourite tulips after a Muntjac deer came visiting. I wasn’t too happy about this.  I can see a grape hyacinth bulb that was dug up as well.

I am very fond of Scillas and this was a patch of them as they were beginning to flower.

This is a pea – Lathyrus ‘Spring Beauty’ just as it too, began to flower.

Our Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera ) always looks good against a blue sky. Cherry Plum are the first of the flowering trees to have blossom in the spring.

Cherry Plum blossom

Pots of ‘Tete a Tete’ miniature daffodils and just a few pale blue crocus.

Sweet Violets (Viola odorata ) growing under the Crabapple tree.

The first of the garden daffodils to flower. It isn’t easy to see in this photo but the trumpets are a darker orange colour.  I think they might be ‘Jetfire’ daffodils.

A large clump of Primroses ( Primula vulgaris) growing in the verge at the front of the house.

Primrose flower. This is a pin-eye flower, with the pinhead-like stigma in the centre of the flower and the stamens hidden below.

I showed you a ‘thrum-eyed’ primrose in an earlier post 

‘Thrum-eyed’ primrose – the long stamens are visible in the centre of the flower but the shorter stigma is invisible.

I have made a slideshow of some of the daffodils we have planted round the perimeter of the garden and round the big pond.

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My music selection is Julie Fowlis singing Lon-dubh; a beautiful rendition in Gaelic of Paul McCartney’s song ‘Blackbird’.

Thanks for visiting!

Reydon Wood

Tags

Alexanders, Barren Strawberry, Bugle, Common Dog Violet, coppice wood, cow parsley, Dryad's Saddle, early dog-violet, Early Purple Orchid, ferns, Goldilocks Buttercup, Great Diving Beetle, Greater Stitchwort, ground-ivy, Herb-Robert, Hornbeam, lesser celandine, primrose, Reydon Wood, Suffolk, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Three-nerved Sandwort, water-violet, wild flowers, wild strawberry, Wood Anemone, Yellow Archangel, Yellow Pimpernel

We drove to Reydon Wood on Friday, in search of bluebells.

Wood Lane

We parked at the end of Wood Lane. The walk down the lane is pleasant and we get glimpses of the wood on the other side of the deep ditch on our right.

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) is in flower everywhere.

The Romans introduced Alexanders into Britain and it is mainly found near the coast especially in the east of the country.  It was used as a medicinal herb and also as a pot herb.  The flowerheads can be steamed like broccoli.

Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea) is another flower that is blooming wherever I go at present.

The Anglo Saxons and Celts believed that a stitch in the side was probably caused by elf-shot and this plant cured it!

Greater Stitchwort

Our first sighting of Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta)

Cow-parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is coming into flower very early this year

There they are, on the far side of the ditch!

A beautiful Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna )

Bluebells and Greater Stitchwort

To the left of us as we walked up Wood Lane we could see a field full of bright yellow Oil-seed Rape (Brassica napus) through the hedge.

I believe this is Goldilocks Buttercup ( Ranunculus auricomus)

This is the first time I have taken notice of this buttercup.  I have probably seen it before because I find they are fairly common in woodland, but I’ve never looked at one properly, just assuming it was a Meadow or Creeping Buttercup.  The stem leaves are quite different from the other buttercups I know and I read that the flowers are usually deformed or have some or all of their petals missing.

We arrived at the entrance to the wood

This is the first time I have seen Wood Anemones ( Anemone nemorosa) here.

There were a few primroses (Primula vulgaris ) still flowering.

Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana )

This is the most common violet we have in this country and it can be found anywhere except on very acidic soils.  The leaves are heart-shaped and the spur (at the back of the flower) is much paler than the petals.  This violet is unscented.

Early Dog Violet (Viola reichenbachiana )

Another unscented violet; the flowers of this plant are paler and smaller than the Common Dog Violet and the spur is usually as dark or even darker than the petals.  The leaves are narrower than those of the Common Dog Violet.  This isn’t a good photo but it is the best out of the three I took!

Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)

This plant could be named after St Robert of Molesme who founded Citeaux Abbey in France and who is said to have staunched wounds and healed ulcers with Herb Robert.  It could also be named after Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of William the Conqueror and a patron of medical botany.  He used Herb Robert to cure the plague.

The path through the wood.

Barren Strawberry (Potentilla sterilis )

The flower here is past its best so it is not easy to see that the petals have a gap between them and that the sepals are clearly seen.  The leaves (on the right of the photo) are a dull, matt green and divided into three toothed leaflets with the terminal tooth on each leaflet being smaller and shorter than the adjacent teeth.

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria vesca )

Here is a Wild Strawberry, which I found just a few feet away from the Barren Strawberry and you can see the difference between them.  The petals are close together and mainly hide the sepals.  The leaves are a bright, shiny yellow-green and the terminal tooth is as long as (sometimes longer than) the adjacent teeth.

Here is the pond in the middle of the wood. On the far side are Water Violets (Hottonia palustris )

More Water Violets – I couldn’t get a better photo of them.

Great Diving Beetle (Dytiscus marginalis )

We watched this beetle for a while as it came to the surface to gather air which it stores under its elytra or wing cases.  The beetle’s spiracles (breathing pores) are under the wing cases and allow the air stored there to enter the body.  When the air is used up the beetle returns to the surface for more.  There were many newts in the pond too.

Yellow Pimpernel (Lysimachia nemorum )

A large patch of Bugle (Ajuga reptans )

Beautiful new green leaves of Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus )

Hornbeams look a little like Beech trees but the trunks have fluted bark and the leaves are toothed.  Hornbeams are regularly coppiced and Reydon Wood is a coppice wood.

A coppice tree which will probably be harvested in the next few years. The tree is probably many hundred years old.

The area just beyond this barrier has recently been coppiced and the stools (tree stumps) will be sprouting soon. The barrier has been built up using twigs and branches to stop deer from eating the new growth on the coppice stools.

Coppice stools surrounded by Bluebells and with the deer barrier in the background

A strange-looking stool which looks as though it might run off as soon as our backs are turned!

Harvested coppice logs

I believe this fungus is Dryad’s Saddle (Polyporus squamosus )

Early Purple Orchid ( Orchis mascula)

Early Purple Orchid showing its spotted leaves

Three-nerved Sandwort (Moehringia trinervia )

At first I thought this was Common Chickweed but then I noticed the petals are not split and that the sepals are longer than the petals.  The leaves have three to five parallel veins on them.  I didn’t manage to get a close-up shot of the plant.

Herb Robert (pink flowers) and Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea ) (Blue flowers)

Lesser Celandine, Herb Robert, Ground Ivy and Early Purple Orchid

 

 

Yellow Archangel ( Lamiastrum galeobdolon)

There is a cultivated form of this plant (subspecies ‘argentatum’) with silvery patches on the leaves which has escaped into the wild and is quite invasive.

Lesser Celandines and Bluebells

 

Early Purple Orchid and Bluebells

Fern and Bluebells

Bluebells and ferns

Here is a slideshow of the Bluebells we saw.

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The Bluebells were not quite at their peak and as the day was overcast and chilly we didn’t smell their wonderful scent.  We decided it would be a good idea for us to return in a week’s time to see how they had developed.  Unfortunately, we have had very cold weather this week with frosts and wintery showers of hail and sleet.  I hope the Bluebells are not too damaged.  I apologise for the length of this post.

Thanks for visiting!