Autumn Berries and Fruit

Tags

autumn, berries, blackthorn, colourful leaves, countryside, field maple, haws, Hawthorn, Holly, ivy, rosehips, sheep, sloes, Suffolk, walking, wild fruits

Richard asked me if I’d like to accompany him to the post-box down the lane.  He had a birthday card to post to his brother and also a notice to put on the village notice-board.  The weather was fine, though cloudy and we hadn’t walked anywhere together for a few weeks.  I quickly put on my coat and walking shoes and we set off.

The hedge on the opposite side of the lane was pale green and orange.

The hedges still had a few leaves left on them. This is a Field Maple (Acer campestre) hedge.  Not in focus, but I liked the colours.

A gap in the hedge further along the lane gave us a sight of the tower belonging to All Saints church.  It is surrounded by trees, most of which have lost their leaves now.  The field has been sown with barley or wheat which has germinated and will continue to grow on milder days all through the winter.

All Saints church in the distance

Some of the more sheltered Field Maple trees still had leaves.

This fine-looking old house near us has been empty for some time.

Richard proudly demonstrates his posting technique!

We met a neighbour and chatted with her for some time.  I admired the fine cherry tree in her front garden.

Our neighbour’s beautiful cherry tree.

We walked on to the notice-board and then decided to continue down the lane.

A row of Italian Alders (Alnus cordata) were planted some years ago as a wind-break along the edge of a field.  The cones are much larger than our native Alder cones.

Italian Alder cones

Our local stream, The Beck, has been dry for months.  We have not had enough rainfall this year.

The Beck

Another pretty hedge

The Guelder-rose trees (Viburnum opulus) have been beautiful this autumn! I have never seen so much viburnum fruit before!

Here is another Guelder-rose.

This is a Spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus) in the hedgerow

Here is the pretty pink and orange spindle fruit

This is a picture of the lane along which we walked

There were a few sloes left on the Blackthorns (Prunus spinosa)

A few Common Hawthorn berries (haws) too (Crataegus monogyna)

A view over the hedge to the fields beyond. The skies were clearing.

This tree-trunk was covered with Ivy stems (Hedera helix). It attaches itself to trees, fences and walls by short roots and can completely cover tall trees. A Dog Rose (Rosa canina) stem hung in front of the tree.

Rosehip

Bird’s nests are easier to see now that the leaves are falling from the trees

Puddles were full of leaves and reflections

We walked through St Margaret South Elmham churchyard and Richard sat for a while to rest his back.

A late rose was blooming

The Holly (Ilex aquifolium) had a few berries on it

Our Blackberries (Bramble) (Rubus fruticosus agg.) were very poor this year because of the low rainfall. Even the mice and birds didn’t chose to eat these ones which have been left to shrivel on the vine.

I am not sure whether these fruits are Blackthorn or Bullace (a type of wild plum). 

Autumn leaves

Sheep were being grazed on the common at the end of our lane

This sheep was happy to stop and stare

We soon arrived back home, having been away a lot longer than we had originally intended.

This was a walk we took a fortnight ago and after a couple of frosts and some strong wind last night most of the remaining leaves have fallen from the trees.  The countryside looks ready for winter now.

My music choice today is ‘Somewhere in my Heart’ by Aztec Camera.  There is no special reason for my choice except I like it and am amazed it is thirty years old!

Thanks for visiting!

A Walk in the Black Forest

Tags

bedstraw, berries, bilberry, Black Forest, brimstone butterfly, butterfly, cat's-ear, Common Bird's-foot Trefoil, Common Cow-wheat, Common Earthball, common knapweed, Dame's-violet, forest, foxglove, holiday, Lesser Stitchwort, Loosestrife, Lysimachia, Male Fern, moth, Polypody, Scarlet Tiger moth, Small Balsam, Speedwell, St John's-wort, trees, Triberg, views, walking

Our week’s holiday was coming to an end and we wanted to take a walk in the beautiful countryside around the town of Triberg.  The hotel thoughtfully provided maps and suggestions for walks so we chose one and adapted it for our use.  Neither Richard nor I are as fit or as young as we used to be and Elinor cannot walk very far because of her scoliosis so we decided on a half-circuit of the town in the woods.  We went in the direction of the railway station and took a steep path up between houses towards the forest.

Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus)

We were soon high enough to be able to look down on the town which was very busy with Sunday visitors and many motorbikes.  I think Richard told us this part of the walk was called the Bilberry Wood and there were certainly many bilberries growing at the side of the path.

There was plenty of fungus too. I think this may be Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)

We soon climbed a little further into the forest and left the town behind and no longer heard the traffic.

The forest became denser but there was never any difficulty following the path which was beautifully maintained.  I began to see many different plants; some I recognised and some I didn’t.  If anyone can help me with the names of these plants I will be very grateful.

Polypody (Polypodium vulgare) – a true fern. When walking with my family I always get left behind because I like to take photos of plants and fungi. I don’t have the time to take the detailed shots I would like in order to identify my finds in case I am left too far behind!

More Polypody

I love the chunkiness of Polypody so I cropped one of the photos above to look at it in more detail.

Polypody

I think this might be Small Balsam (Impatiens parviflora)

Unknown flower

It’s very tall!

Interesting leaves

Common Cow-wheat (Melampyrum pratense)

Wild flowers including a Bedstraw, Common Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea).

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)

Speedwell

Speedwell

This may be Male Fern (Dryopteris filix-mas)

St John’s-wort; I don’t know which of the many St John’s-worts it is.

Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata)

Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata)

I managed to photograph a butterfly….

A Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) on Lysimachia

…and a moth.

A Scarlet Tiger Moth (Callimorpha dominula). When flying I could see its underwings which were bright scarlet.

The views as we walked were marvellous.

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Berries

Dame’s-violet (Hesperis matronalis)

Unknown yellow flower

Common Knapweed ( Centaurea nigra)

The path eventually returned us to the town near to the waterfall.

My music selection today is ‘A Walk in the Black Forest’ which was so popular on the radio when I was a little girl.

I am hoping that Elinor will provide the last of my Black Forest posts.

Thanks for visiting!

 

November

Tags

Autumn plants, berries, church going, Diary, Don Pasquale by Donizetti, family, flowers, garden work, Glyndebourne Touring Company, house repairs, leaf colour, Open Space Theatre Company, snow, St Michael and All Saints and St Felix church, Suffolk, Uncle Vanya by Chekhov, weather

Red Christmas Cactus

Salmon Christmas Cactus

My point-and-shoot camera stopped working and we didn’t think there was much point in taking it to be repaired.  A replacement probably costs what the repair would have cost – if it could have been repaired – so we ordered a replacement which arrived yesterday. Richard kindly said I could borrow his small camera while we waited for the replacement, but I never used it.  There haven’t been many opportunities for photography during the past week and the camera only took a couple of days to arrive.

Acer leaves at the beginning of November

After a chilly week or so in October, the weather this month has been fairly warm for the time of year.  We have also had a fair amount of rain.  I have managed to do a little garden-tidying, though as usual, not as much as I need to do or as I would have liked!  There may be a few more days this year when I can finish off the work so I am not too worried.  We had a couple of storms with high winds last week which ripped most of the leaves from the trees and Saturday was cold with wintry showers.

Mahonia this November

Mahonia flowers

We had a gardener/landscaper and his assistant come to do a few jobs that Richard needed help with.  Almost all our hedges have been cut and tidied by them and the front ditch has been strimmed.  The hedges between us and our neighbours on either side of us have been left for now and will be done at a later date.  Both of those hedges (like the front one) are on the far side of deep ditches which are fast filling with very cold water and are difficult to do.

Copper Beech at the beginning of November

Copper Beech in the sun in the middle of the month

Another job the gardener did was to dismantle our old summerhouse and extend the concrete pad on which it stood.  When I say ‘dismantle’ I use the word quite loosely as all he did was lean on it and it fell down.  With the winds that blew last week it probably would have fallen down without anyone’s help.  Richard is still deciding which summerhouse to buy to replace the old one.  We will be able to keep a few things in it that are needed for that end of the garden and Richard will be able to use it as a little home-from-home – a place to escape the hurly-burly of life in the house – a ‘shed’ with a view (of our big pond).  I am sure a comfy chair and coffee-making apparatus will be making their way down the garden and the bell on the wall of the house will be put to good use when summoning him for meals!

Spindle berries beginning to split

Spindle berries

We got a couple of quotes from local replacement-window firms and have made our choice.  The work to replace almost all the windows in the house, both garage doors and the back door and window in the garage will be done in January.  I just know the weather will be freezing cold when the work’s done and I will have a miserable time of it!  However, it will be worth it in the end as the house will eventually be considerably warmer and our heating bills will be much reduced.

The path round our big pond earlier this month while we still had some leaves on the trees

A new reed that has appeared next to our large pond this year

Richard spent a couple of days staying with an old friend in Manchester a few weeks ago.  His friend had to retire early through ill health (heart attack) but is much better now and is enjoying not going to work.  Richard came home after a very pleasant break much happier about his own retirement.

Lots of little bracket fungi found on a dead branch

Richard and I went to the Rectory coffee morning at the beginning of the month and enjoyed seeing all our friends from church.  We came home with cakes, pains aux raisins, marmalade and a book – no prizes in the raffle this time.  This month we also went to the Remembrance Sunday service at St James’ church which was quite moving.  Representatives from all the villages in the benefice read out the names of all the people who lost their lives in some of the wars we have taken part in – the two World Wars as well as the Korean and the Boer Wars.  The American airmen who lost their lives during WW2 and who were stationed at Flixton airfield were also mentioned.

Crabapple ‘Evereste’ covered in fruit . This photo also shows part of the front hedge and ditch before we had them both trimmed and tidied.

Alice came home the Saturday before last and stayed until the following Tuesday.  This was only the second time she has been able to visit this year but we hope to see her at Christmas as well which will be fun!  Mum came to lunch that Sunday and she enjoyed chatting with Alice and catching up with her news.

The church of St Michael and All Angels

The sundial on St Michael’s wall

Some of the sheep in the field next to the church.

(The three photos above were all taken with my new camera.  I think I will need to adjust the settings to get clearer pictures.)

Richard and I had been to the 9.30 Morning Prayer service at St Michael’s church the Sunday before last. Maurice, one of our Benefice Elders, took the service and spoke about St Edmund, Suffolk’s Patron Saint whose feast day is the 20th of November.  I had been due to take Mum to her church that day but couldn’t because of lunch-cooking duties.  Instead, I arranged to take Mum to church this Sunday just gone.  It was very icy with snow still on the ground in the morning and we assumed that it would be as bad at Mum’s house and at Eye; Richard said he would drive us in his 4×4.  Unfortunately for Richard, the further inland we got the less snow there was and he found that he needn’t have driven me and Mum after all!  He had to sit through a High Church service at Eye church with bells, incense and a procession to boot, because he had been gallant.  Richard doesn’t like High Church services – his Methodist upbringing revolts against them.  I was brought up going to High Church services and I can worship anywhere really, but do prefer my own local church with my friends and Richard by my side.  I think I’ll be left to drive Mum to church on my own as usual in future, whatever the weather!

These next photos were taken by Richard on his phone on Sunday morning.

View of the garden from the conservatory

The greenhouse seen from the conservatory

The garden on the south side of the house from the conservatory

I went out for the evening twice last week.  On Tuesday evening I took Mum to a performance of the opera ‘Don Pasquale’ by Donizetti.  It was performed by the Glyndebourne Touring Company at the Theatre Royal in Norwich.  We loved it very much indeed.  The singing, the costumes, the orchestra and the stage set were fabulous.  A really enjoyable evening out only spoiled by a gale blowing and making driving and walking difficult – Mum was nearly blown over a couple of times and I had to hold onto her tightly.  Clouds of leaves were swirling about in front of the car and bits of tree were falling onto the road all about us.  As I drove along I was aware of loose branches swinging to and fro just above the car and hoped I could get out of the way before they fell.  Fortunately I got my mother and myself safely to Norwich and then back home again.

Wild Rosehips in the hedge.

On Saturday night Richard and I went to see ‘Uncle Vanya’ by Chekhov performed by the Open Space Theatre Company at The Cut in Halesworth.  We both enjoyed the play very much which was acted and directed well.  On leaving the theatre we found it had started snowing and as Richard had left his hat in the car he got quite wet and cold on our brisk walk to the carpark.  The snow was falling heavily as we left the town and Richard found it very difficult keeping to the road once we left the street-lights behind.  Most of our lanes have deep ditches running along next to them and there is always the risk of driving into a ditch in the dark.  We were glad to get home again and into the warm.  The snow didn’t last long and by morning most of the roads and paths were mainly clear but icy.

All photos in this post were taken either in our house or in the garden except for the ones of St Michael’s church.

My musical choice is performed by Emeli Sandé and Jules Holland.

Thanks for visiting!

 

October’s End

Tags

Anastasia Moutsatsou, autumn, berries, Diary, insects, leaf colour, Mendham, October, plants, renovations, Sir Alfred Munnings, sunset, trees, weather

I saw these holly berries (Ilex aquifolium) in one of the carparks in Halesworth at the beginning of the month.

We have had a fair amount of cloud and rain this month and there was a week when the rest of the country was getting very pleasant weather while we in eastern East Anglia and also those in eastern Kent were having gloomy, wet weather with north-easterly winds.   We have had a few slight frosts and some sunshine too – but not as much as we would have liked!  For anyone who is interested in our weather here in the east of Britain – and why wouldn’t you be! – here is a link to the local BBC weather forecast.

Spindle berries (Euonymous europaeus) seen in our garden at the beginning of October

The leaf-colour has been very beautiful but I haven’t been able to get out often to take photos.  The leaves are falling fast now and the recent heavy rain and windy weather have stripped many trees of their leaves altogether.

A beautiful Maple tree I saw on the way to my mother’s house on the 14th October.

As I stood admiring it it began to rain heavily, as you can see!

The rainbow that appeared at the same time.

I took a photo of the tree again on the way home later that day.

I was surprised to see some Hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum) in flower in the ditch next to the maple tree. It usually flowers during late summer and all other Hemp-agrimony plants had already gone to seed.

Richard and I have been sharing driving Elinor to and from college and I have been feeling much less tired than I did when I was doing all the driving.  The month has had its fair share of hospital, doctors’ surgery, optician and dentist visits.  Every week this month one of us (at least!) has had an appointment or has had to take someone (my mother) to an appointment.

I mentioned to Richard that I had seen a beautiful Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) on my way to my mother’s house (yet again!) so he kindly photographed it for me with his phone when he walked past it on a breezy morning later in the week.

He photographed it from the other side too

He also photographed a Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Elinor has had her half-term holiday this week.  She has worked very hard during her first half-term and has had quite a lot of homework to do during this week.  She has enjoyed the course so far and her tutors are very pleased with her and the standard of her work.  This bodes very well.  She is also working hard to overcome her anxiety and also the sleep-phobia that has returned to plague her nights.

Raindrops caught in a spider’s web

A Witch-hazel leaf. All the rest of the tree’s leaves were a buttery yellow but the leaves on the new shoots went red.

This Cricket, a female Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) I believe, was sun-bathing while sitting on a yellow Witch-hazel leaf.

Alice seems well and is enjoying her new job but wishes she was able to work longer hours.  She has to have her PhD thesis printed before she can take part in her graduation ceremony so is trying to save up enough money to get it done.  She is coming home for the weekend in a fortnight and I am looking forward to it very much.  To see her in action discussing horror films please watch the video on the following link.

Fine trees on a fine day. The churchyard of St Mary’s church in Halesworth. Whenever I see this wall I remember the times I have held one or other of my daughters’ hands when they were little as they balanced all the way along it. It used to take ages! Alice was especially keen.

Richard and I are starting to compile the list of improvements and repairs we need to do to the house and garden.  One of the first jobs will be to replace most of the windows and we hope to get this done before Christmas.  We are also getting a gardener/landscaper to clear and dig out the front ditch which has become overgrown and blocked.  We have asked him to cut the hedges too.  This will be done in a fortnight’s time.

I found these ladybirds sheltering in my Rosemary bush next to the front door. I think they were hoping to hibernate there. We have since had some very wet weather and they are no longer there.

Last winter we had no ladybirds hibernating in the corner of the window in our bedroom.  This year, when we hope to replace the windows in a few weeks time, the ladybirds are back!  I will have to think of a way of gently moving them before the windows are removed.  I don’t know if they will be as interested in the new poly-carbonate windows we are to have, as they are in the old wooden ones with ladybird pheromones on!

Last Sunday we went out for lunch to The Sir Alfred Munnings in Mendham. (I don’t know what the black shadows are top right and bottom left of the photo).

The artist Sir Alfred Munnings was born in Mendham in 1878 and this restaurant and bar was re-named after him.

Mendham is a very pretty village just a few miles from where we live.

Mendham church is quite large and well looked after. I couldn’t get far enough away from it to get the whole of the church in one photo.

Mendham church

Sunset

And another!

Here is one of my favourite songs – ‘Ola Ta Diskola’ (All the Difficulties) by Anastasia Moutsatsou.

Thanks for visiting!

 

 

September’s End

Tags

autumn, berries, buzzard, common lizard, crane fly, family, flowers, Fruit, fruit trees, fungus, garden flowers, greater celandine, wasp nest, wild flowers

Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

We have had some very cool nights already and lots of rain.  Autumn has arrived!  The nights are drawing in and when I get up just after six o’clock in the morning on Mondays and Fridays I have to wait for well over half an hour before the sun rises.

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

I have no news to give you about Alice – I haven’t spoken to her for about a fortnight so I assume she is busy and coping alright.

Morning Glory

Dahlia

Dahlia

To our surprise, the day after I mentioned in this blog that it would take weeks for probate to be granted, it was granted!  Richard has spent two days in Manchester with his brother sorting out all their mother’s finances.  They also went to a place that Joyce was fond of and scattered her ashes.  Richard was hoping to spend three days with Chris and wanted to travel up in his new car but unfortunately his windscreen was hit by a stone chipping last week which left a four inch crack and it needs replacing!  The insurance company is sending someone to our house to carry out the replacement today (which is when Richard had hoped to return home).  He came home yesterday instead (Thursday).  He will have to go back to Manchester in a couple of weeks to finish going through all Joyce’s belongings and deciding what to do with them – a very difficult business.

Dog-rose-hips (Rosa canina)

Blackberries (Rubus fruticosus agg.)

Pyracantha berries

Cotoneaster berries

Black Bryony (Tamus communis) growing through Cotoneaster horizontalis

Cotoneaster horizontalis

Elinor has almost completed two weeks at college, is working hard and her tutors are very pleased with her.  She is enjoying the course but finds the social side of college life very tricky.  She is very insecure and worries all the time that she is saying or doing the wrong thing.  She has also been badly affected by her grandmother’s death and funeral.  She is afraid of going to sleep in case she doesn’t wake up again and she is frightened of being left alone both now and in the future.

Eating apples ‘Saturne’

Pears ‘Concorde’

Figs ‘Brown Turkey’

Crabapple ‘Evereste’

Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’

Crabapple

I have been busy in the house and with my mother; Richard has had a lot to do in the garden and has also been arranging our finances now that he has retired.  We have had no time for a walk recently and in fact have done very few walks together during the whole year.  We hope that in the next week or so things will have calmed down and we will be able to find time to go out together.

Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkekengi)

Japanese Ornamental Cherry ‘Fragrant Cloud’

Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpureum’

Spindle (Euonymous europaeus)

Hazel new catkins (Corylus avellana)

Elder (Sambucus nigra)

Fungus

Fungus

Fungus

The photographs in this post were mainly done during one afternoon this week.

This is the entrance to one of the three wasp nests we have in our garden. They took over an old mouse or vole hole.

Crane fly (Tipula paludosa)

Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus)

I saw this plant just inside the stone wall that surrounds St Mary’s church in Bungay.

Greater Celandine

This plant is no relation to the Lesser Celandine we see in the springtime.  It is a type of poppy, similar to the Yellow Horned-poppy I found on Dunwich beach a few weeks ago.  Its orange-coloured sap has been used in Asia for burning away warts and corns since the beginning of Chinese civilisation.  This caustic liquid was also used to remove soreness and cloudiness from the eyes!  It uses an oil gland on its seeds to ensure they are taken a distance away.  Ants feed on the oil and then carry the seed off.

Juvenile Common Lizard

For the second week running, I discovered something hiding under our wheelie-bin.  Obviously, rubbish bins are the go-to shelter for small creatures.

Elinor and I admired these clouds as we neared home the other day.

We turned to our left and saw these!

The following song is dedicated to Elinor.

Thanks for visiting!

Wild Flowers in my Garden

Tags

berries, fruits, Late summer, Suffolk, wild flowers

This post will include wild flowers I saw and photographed during August and September.  Because of other duties, I haven’t taken many photographs since the beginning of September.  There were plenty of flowers about (and still are because of the unseasonably warm weather we have been experiencing) but most of them stayed unphotographed.  I have also included some berries, seeds and fruits as many of them were ripening fast during August.

The Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) is very popular with all the insects

Water mint growing in our ditch

Two types of hoverfly on the mint flowers.

There are a few flies on these mint flower spikes too but they are well camouflaged.  I like the little fly on the right zooming off somewhere.

Peppermint (Mentha x piperata) is is a hybrid between Spear Mint/Garden Mint (Mentha Spicata) and Water Mint.

The next plant is I think, Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata) but there are a couple of features that make me feel unsure.

Cat’s-ear

The leaves at the bottom of the photo look too spiky to be Cat’s-ear.  Perhaps the leaves belong to a different plant?  Why do I never remember to take pictures of the whole plant?!

 

Cat’s-ear

The next photo is a crop of the one above and shows a couple of insects on the seed-head that I had no idea were there when I took the photo.

There is (what I think is) a mature Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina) on the right and down on the left is a little green and black insect – a Green Shield Bug nymph, 4th instar.

The main reason I have been in doubt is the colour of the outer florets.  They are such a dark orange-red that I thought at first it might be Beaked Hawk’s-beard but I’m sure it isn’t that.

Cat’s-ear

Cat’s-ear

And this is a cropped photo showing the red outer florets more clearly

What makes me think that it is Cat’s-ear is the presence of the scale-like bracts on the stem.

This next plant is called Fat-hen (Chenopodium album).  It is a very common annual plant of arable land.

Fat-hen

Fat-hen is a wild spinach and its use in Britain as a food has been traced back to the Bronze Age.

Fat-hen

It can grow up to a metre in height.

This is such a tiny-flowered forget-me-not.

The flowers are only about 2 or 3 mm across.

It is called Changing Forget-me-not (Mysotis discolor)

The flowers start off a yellowish colour but soon change to blue.

A Silver Birch (Betula pendula) scale which had landed on a clover leaf.

A scale is a sort of ‘spacer’ between the miniscule seeds of the birch when they are in the catkin.

Scentless Mayweed (Tripleurospermum inodorum) continued to flower.

Dogwood berries had formed and were beginning to ripen.

There were plenty of grasses to photograph.

Tufted Hair-grass

Tufted Hair-grass

Tufted Hair-grass

Tufted Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa) grows to about 1.5 metres in height and I think it a really beautiful grass – lovely enough to have in the flower border.  It is a clump-forming perennial and quite easy to keep under control.

Carpets of Bird’s-foot Trefoil on the un-ploughed strip of land round the field behind our house.

Sun Spurge (Euphorbia helioscopia)

The Sun Spurge has sweet-scented, kidney-shaped lobes on its petal-less flowers which attract insect pollinators.  When the Sun Spurge’s seed capsule is ripe it bursts open with an audible crack and the seeds are fired off in all directions.  There are three seeds in separate compartments and they have a fleshy appendage that contains an oil that ants find irresistible.  They collect the seeds and carry them off even further.   Ants usually only eat the oily part and leave the rest of the seed to germinate.

The Euphorbia genus was named after a man called Euphorbus, physician to King Juba of Mauritania in the 1st century AD, who is said to have used the plant medicinally in North Africa.  The species name ‘helioscopia’ derives from two Greek words which together mean ‘look at the sun’.  This probably refers to the flat-topped head of flowers which spreads out to be fully exposed to the sun.

I found a few Stinging Nettles (Urtica dioica) with pink flowers.

Stinging Nettle

Stinging Nettle

Parsley Water-dropwort (Oenanthe lachenalii) just coming into flower

I found this growing in our ditch at the front of the house.  This isn’t poisonous but it looks quite similar to Hemlock so it is best left alone.  It can be distinguished from Hemlock by its long narrow leaflets and greyish colour.  Hemlock (Conium maculatum) has wedge-shaped leaves and is a deeper green;  it has a foetid smell and purple-blotched stem.

We also have a lot of St John’s-wort growing in the same ditch.  I think it might be Square-stalked St John’s-wort (Hypericum tetrapterum).

Square-stalked St John’s-wort

Square-stalked St John’s-wort

This St John’s-wort has a winged square stem.  I don’t think that is a good explanation but a photo of a cross-section of the stem would show the corners  drawn out into thin flaps.

I didn’t find this rather stunted Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) until most of its flowers had disappeared.

This is Spiked Water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum) in our pond

 

 

I have cropped the photo above as this shows the red fruits a little more clearly. Not a good image, I know.

The spikes of this milfoil rise above the water and in mid-summer have tiny red flowers on them – the lower flowers female and the upper male.  The feathery leaves are below the surface and are in whorls.

This is a native plant and is not invasive here but I read that it is causing real problems in Canada and the States.  We have similar problems with Parrots Feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) from South America.  There are such dangers in introducing wildlife from other countries.

This is Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) growing in a ditch on my route to my mother’s house

I found the fuzzy, creamy-white sprays of flowers very difficult to photograph.  They are very sweet-smelling – like almond blossom.  The plant belongs to the rose family.

Meadowsweet

Meadowsweet. The leaves have three to five pairs of oval leaflets with smaller leaflets between

Meadowsweet

Rosehips (Rosa canina) in our hedge

Spindle berries (Euonymus europaeus) maturing in our hedge

 

Elderberries (Sambucus nigra) in our garden

New catkins forming on the Hazel trees (Corylus avellana) in early September

Finally, some photographs of Wild Hop (Humulus lupulus) growing in the hedge in my mother’s garden.

Hop vine

Hop fruits

Hop fruits

This year, a local brewery asked people to donate the hops growing in their hedges so they could make a special wild hop beer.  Mum didn’t donate hers as she doesn’t have that many and we didn’t hear about this until after the event.  My husband comes out in a nasty rash if he touches hop leaves.  Fortunately for him he gets no rash when he drinks beer.

Hop leaves

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