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A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: dog violet

Wild Flowers? or Weeds?

20 Thu Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Insects, plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, wild birds

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Tags

bumble bees, chickweed, dog violet, flints, greylag, marsh marigold, narcissus, red dead-nettle, sunset, sweet violet, weeds, white dead-nettle, wildflower

Our garden is too large for us to keep every part of it neat and well manicured and I wouldn’t like it half so well if it was.  I love gardening – digging, weeding, tending plants, but there is always risk, responsibility and pressure to do things properly and at the right time.  The wild, untamed, untidy parts of the garden are just pure pleasure to me.  I have no yearning to tidy them though I realise that some management is necessary which is why we had the work done to the big pond a few weeks ago.  The ‘weeds’ I assiduously pull out of my flower beds I love to look at in the wild garden.  Flowers at this time of the year are a wonderful source of nectar for insects, especially bumble bees, just out of hibernation.

The red dead-nettle, Lamium, a member of the mint family, grows all over our garden and is a very common plant in Britain and flowers for most of the year.  Both it and the white dead-nettle were boiled and used as pot-herbs and as pig-swill in the past.  They had many medicinal uses, most notably against the ‘King’s Evil’ – scrofula, a type of tuberculosis that caused skin eruptions.  Culpepper says ‘The herb bruised and with salt and vinegar and hog’s-grease laid upon a hard tumour or swelling, or that vulgarly called the king’s-evil, do help to dissolve or discuss them’.  It also ‘makes the heart merry, drives away melancholy, quickens the spirits’.  If you look at the photo below carefully you will be able to see the dark anthers under the hooded upper lip and the darker purple markings on the lower notched lip.

003Red dead nettle

 

The white dead-nettle’s flowers are bigger than the red’s.  It relies on bumble bees to pollinate it’s flowers and they (the flowers) are custom made for bees.  The lower lip is a landing stage for the bee and has two small lateral lobes and a notched middle lobe.  The anthers are black and are under the hooded upper lip.  As the bee enters the flower seeking the nectar the top of it’s abdomen brushes the stamens and gets covered in pollen which is then transferred to the style of the next flower it visits.

005White dead nettle (480x640)

 

We don’t have as much chickweed in this garden as in other gardens we have had probably because we get so many ducks, geese and chickens passing through.  They love the plant, which can also be eaten by humans as a salad vegetable.  The flowers are so small that most people hardly notice them but looked at closely they are quite lovely.  The botanical name is Stellaria, little star, and the name is quite apt.  The styles are white and the stamens are such a pretty pink.  Chickweed is a member of the pink family.  It has a single line of hairs which run the whole length of the stem and if a drop of dew lands on the plant it runs down the stem by way of the hairs until it gets to a pair of leaves.  Here some of the water is absorbed by the hairs and the rest carries on down the stem to the next pair of leaves and so on.  This water is reserved in the plant in case of drought.  It flowers almost all year round and is widespread and prolific, which is why most gardeners hate it!

006Chickweed (640x480)

 

This marsh-marigold plant is in our small pond and is the only decent plant in there.  It flowers and flowers and looks so bright and cheerful.  We have another plant in the big pond but I have never seen any flowers on that.  I also discovered a very small plant in the ditch by the big pond with much smaller flowers.  I posted a photo of it a few days ago.  Another name for marsh-marigold is Kingcup and according to one of my flower books this is derived from the Old English ‘cop’ meaning button or stud such as kings once wore.  Apparently, farmers in many parts of the British Isles, used to hang marsh-marigolds over the byres of their cattle on May Day to protect them from the evil doings of fairies and witches.

008Marsh-marigold (640x480)

 

We not only have dog violet in our garden but also sweet violet which is the only violet flower to be scented.  In olden times they were strewn on the floor to sweeten the air.  Their scent is lost almost as soon as it is noticed and this is because the flower produces a substance called ionine as well as the scent.  Ionine dulls the sense of smell so that not only does the violet’s scent disappear but any other odours too.  Clever!  In the verge near to my mother’s cottage are many white violets which are very pretty.

011Sweet violet (640x480)

 

Our garden is full of flints and some of them are enormous.  Trying to make new flowerbeds has taken so much time and energy as these great stones have to be levered out all the time and more and more keep appearing.  I quite understand the old folk thinking that stones grew in the soil.  This is our Lindt flint as we think it looks like a Lindt chocolate rabbit.

012Lindt flint (640x480)

 

A pretty narcissus has just flowered.

013Narcissus (640x480)

 

The dear goose sleeping on her nest.

002Sleeping goose on nest (640x480)

 

And lastly a few pictures of last night’s sunset.

014Sunset (640x480)

015Sunset (640x480)

016Sunset (640x480)

 

 

 

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Wednesday 12th to Sunday 16th March

17 Mon Mar 2014

Posted by Clare Pooley in churches, Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, Uncategorized, walking, wild birds

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Tags

alder, ambulances, brimstone butterfly, chaffinch, church, cowslip, daffodils, dog violet, Eye, fields, figs, greylags, Harleston, hazel, heartsease, Lent, mallards, moon, moorhen, nesting, pond, prayer, pussy willow, quiz night, rooks, Rumburgh, silverlace primula, sunset, tortoiseshell butterfly, trees, Wissett

Wednesday began with frost and mist.  This soon cleared and the weather was then lovely for the rest of the day.  I did my usual shopping trip with my mother with a detour to a free-range chicken farm at Eye where Mum buys her eggs.  I had a little shopping to do for myself, so called in at Harleston on my way home.  I arrived home just after 2pm for a late lunch and had time for a few household chores and a quick walk round the garden to feed the birds, tidy up a couple of things and take some photos before R came home.

A moorhen and a chaffinch at the front of the house.

001Moorhen and chaffinch (640x480)

 

The moorhen again.

002Moorhen (640x480)

 

A couple of photos of the daffodils that have come up round the big pond.

003Reflection of daffodils on pond (640x480)

005Reflection of daffodils on pond (480x640)

Some violet leaves that have struggled up through the dried mud round the pond.

007Violet leaves on path round pond (640x480)

 

And some cowslip leaves too!

008Cowslip plants on path round pond (640x480)

 

Reflection of trees and cloud in the pond.

009Reflection of trees and cloud in pond (640x480)

 

Afternoon moon.

011Afternoon moon (640x480)

 

I had decided what we should have for an evening meal and was about to start it when R offered to cook and I gladly accepted his offer.  I didn’t have time to eat anything as I had to go out at 6.45pm to collect Mum and take her to Eye to attend a Lent course.  The course in her area is a deanery course.  A deanery is a collection of benefices and a benefice is a collection of parishes.  In rural areas to have benefice and or deanery meetings or courses means that there will be more people attending and any speakers kind enough to visit will have a good audience.  The only downside is that the distances to be travelled by many parishioners is very great.  This year’s course is on prayer and Wednesday’s talk was on ‘Prayer with Words’.  The speaker was the Precentor from the Cathedral at Bury St Edmund’s; a really pleasant man who gave an interesting talk.  He introduced us to poets and poems that were new to us as well as reading from old favourites.  My journey home was very difficult because of thick fog.

Thursday.  I was woken just before 6.00am by the rooks!  I had remembered to bring in the sunflower seed feeder but the rooks were trying to get the remains of yesterday’s seed off the bird-table and were tapping loudly on it with their enormous beaks.  I have a cage round the bird-table which is supposed to prevent large birds from getting on it. However, it doesn’t stop the birds from clinging on to the edge of the table with their claws, flapping their wings for balance and pecking food through the mesh!  Another lovely day.  Went in to Halesworth for a haircut and to get yet more shopping (I always manage to forget something each time I go!)  My usual hairdresser is on maternity leave so her Mum did my hair and we chatted about babies.  Both her daughters are having their first babies in the next two weeks and they are getting a little apprehensive.  On the way home I saw a tortoiseshell butterfly and an enormous brimstone butterfly.

I spent the afternoon gardening as well as having a short (for us!) conversation with my sister who was planning to visit Mum at the weekend.  The geese have been very argumentative this week.  The gander of the pair who have claimed the island has been spending most of his time swimming in the pond and seeing off any other goose/gander who dares to come anywhere near the pond bank.  He must be exhausted as he doesn’t seem to have eaten anything either.

A couple of photos of the mallards in our front ditch.

001Pair of mallards in ditch (640x480)

005Mallards in ditch (640x480)

Miniature daffodils in the grass.

004Miniature daffodils in grass (640x480)

 

Goat or Pussy Willow.  Salix caprea.

006Goat willow or pussy willow (640x480)

 

When R got home he wanted to go out for a short walk across the fields.  The wind had got up a little and it had got cloudy but R managed to take some decent photos while we were out.

003Evening walk over the fields (640x427)

006View across the fields (640x427)

008Path by the fields (640x427)

009A ploughed field (640x427)

010Distant trees (640x427)

Alder catkins and cone-like fruits from last year.

012Alder catkins and fruits (640x427)

 

Hazel catkins.

015Hazel catkins (640x427)

 

More fog overnight.

Friday.  A cooler, cloudier, breezier day.  I did some more gardening and lots of ironing.  The geese seemed to have resolved their differences.  The resident pair came to sit near me while I gardened and whenever I looked up they gave gentle honks.  I knew they were asking for food so when I had got to the end of my weeding I fetched some special goose and duck feed I have for just such an occasion (to quote Foghorn Leghorn) and cast it on the grass near by them.  Of course, the gander then hissed at me while the goose ate the food.  He is a very protective mate and even though I have provided the food he has to warn me off and so I do keep my distance!

Saturday.  A quiet morning and another beautiful one.  Still very breezy but much brighter than yesterday.  Did some housework and spoke to A on the phone.  We drove to Mum’s in the afternoon to see my sister F who was visiting with her eldest son and her dog Ben.   We had a lovely couple of chatty hours and we then had to leave to get our evening meal before going to yet another quiz night.  This one was in aid of Rumburgh village hall.  I think it was the noisiest event I had been too since going to dances when I was young.  The hall had just been insulated and redecorated but there were no curtains or blinds at the windows yet and I think this was the reason it was so noisy.  The two farmers on our team were both a little deaf (caused by driving noisy farm machinery) and they were finding it really difficult to hear anything above the hubbub of loud chatter.  Our local Member of Parliament was taking part too.  He lives in Wissett, the next village along on the way to Halesworth, and is very good about taking part in local events and is a truely supportive MP.  He had been out all day on the ambulances as there has been an enquiry about the time it takes for ambulances to get to emergencies.  He was talking to R and one of our farmer friends and said he was very sympathetic towards the ambulance crews, as he had seen for himself the great distances they had to travel and also how many wasted journeys they had to make.  R told him about my sister’s job as a paramedic in Kent and some of the problems she has to put up with too.  Unfortunately we came ninth today but R won a picture of a tree in the raffle.

Sunday.  There was a Morning Prayer service at Rumburgh today but I couldn’t attend as I took Mum to her church.  She hasn’t got anyone to give her a lift at the moment and as she doesn’t usually see anyone at all during the week except me, and all her friends are at her church, I think it only right that I take her there.  I got back home at 1.00pm and had lunch before doing some chores, putting a loaf on to bake and then back out into the garden.  I fed the birds which took nearly an hour – all the feeders were empty, I have a number of them scattered about the garden and the garden is well over an acre in size.  I had noticed this morning when I looked out of the window that the goose has started sitting on her nest on the island.

003Goose on nest (640x480)

 

005Goose on nest (640x480)

A dog violet in flower.

006Dog violet (640x480)

 

A silverlace primula.

007Silver Laced primula (640x480)

 

A heartsease flower.

013Heart's ease (640x480)

 

Figs are starting to swell on the tree.

014Figs (640x480)

 

Lots of pictures of this evening’s sunset.

015Sunset (640x480)

016Sunset (640x480)

017Sunset (640x480)

021Sunset (640x480)

018Sunset (640x480)

019Sunset (640x480)

020Sunset (640x480)

The rookery in the sunset.

022Sunset (640x480)

 

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I talk about what it's like living in a quiet part of Suffolk. I am a wife, mother and daughter, a practising Christian and love the natural world that surrounds me. I enjoy my life - most of the time!

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