• About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

A Suffolk Lane

~ A diary of my life in rural north Suffolk.

A Suffolk Lane

Tag Archives: ground-ivy

Spring Odds and Ends – April

12 Wed Jun 2019

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild flowers

≈ 78 Comments

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.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Reydon Wood

25 Tue Apr 2017

Posted by Clare Pooley in Insects, plants, Rural Diary, walking, wild flowers

≈ 63 Comments

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

This and That – Part 2

16 Thu Jun 2016

Posted by Clare Pooley in Gardening, Insects, music, plants, Rural Diary, trees

≈ 44 Comments

Tags

Bee, blossom, cow parsley, Crabapples, dandelion, field maple, flowers, gardens, ground-ivy, Hawthorn, horse chestnut, Hoverfly, insects, jonquils, Lady's Smock, Maytime, miniature Tulip, narcissus, pasque flower, Pear, pieris, saxifrage, shrubs, St Mark's fly, Suffolk, trees, wild cherry

This post includes the better photos I took at home during the first half of May.

P1000073Miniature Tulip

I have a few miniature scented Tulips. I have no idea what they are called or even when I got them though I think they are about 18 years old. I had a selection of red, orange and yellow ones but all that’s left are the red ones.

P1000071Jonquils-001

These jonquils are tiny and the flowers bob about on their narrow stems like yellow butterflies. Each flower is only about 2 inches across.

P1000074Pasque flower

The Pasque flowers (Pulsatilla vulgaris ‘Alba’ )in my garden came out well after Easter this year. Not only was Easter early but the weather was cold and the flowers sensibly stayed as buds until the time was right.

P1000075Saxifrage

I love this pretty pink Saxifrage!

P1000077Wild cherry

Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium) with a visiting bee

P1000076Wild cherry

Wild Cherry blossom. I like the green-bronze colour of the new leaves.

P1000080Narcissus

Pale yellow double Narcissus

P1000081Pear

Pear ‘Concorde’ blossom.  This pear is supposed to be a dessert pear but by the time it is soft enough to eat it is already rotting in the centre.  Perhaps our climate isn’t suitable for it?  We harvest the pears before they have started to soften and we cook them or we prepare them for the freezer.

P1000082Pear

Pear blossom with a visiting Hoverfly.  The lichen is doing quite well too with its orange fruiting bodies.

P1000096St Mark's flies-001

These are St. Mark’s-flies (Bibio marci) doing what flies do in the spring. The female is the upper fly and she has smoky-grey wings and a small head. The lower fly is the male and he has silvery wings and a larger head. Both sexes have spines on their front legs at the tip of the tibia. You can just see this on the female’s front leg. These flies fly weakly and slowly and dangle their legs as though the effort of flying is almost too much for them. They are called St. Mark’s-flies because they usually appear on or around St. Mark’s day which is April 25th.  This photo was taken on 2nd May – it was a cold spring!

P1000104Lady's smock

Lady’s-smock or Cuckooflower (Cardamine pratensis) – a member of the cabbage family

P1000106Pieris

New leaves on my variegated Pieris ‘Forest Flame’

P1000182Crabapple s. blossom

Crabapple species blossom. Standing under this weeping tree I am almost over-powered by the scent of roses and the buzzing of bees.

P1000183Bluebells

These are the English Bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) I am trying to establish next to the weeping crabapple. I have put canes alongside them to remind us not to mow them until the seeds have set and the leaves have died. I am also hoping that the canes will stop the deer from trampling the plants.

P1000185Dandelion

A beautiful Common Dandelion ‘clock’ (Taraxacum officinale agg.)

P1000187Crabapple 'Evereste' blossom

Crabapple ‘Evereste’ blossom

P1000189Crabapple 'Harry Baker' blossom

Crabapple ‘Harry Baker’ blossom

P1000191Ground ivy

Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

P1000195Horse chestnut

The Horse-chestnut tree (Aesculus hippocastanum) with its flower ‘candles’

P1000197Field maple

Field Maple flowers (Acer campastre)

P1000199Hawthorn

Common Hawthorn flower buds (Crataegus monogyna)

P1000201Cow parsley

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) (or as it is called here in Suffolk, Sheep’s Parsley) with a fly.  I am very fond of Cow Parsley and the sight of masses of it in flower along the lanes makes me happy.

Here is another song that features a wonderful trombone solo and a fantastic brass riff too!  This is a very old recording and it is also an uncommon arrangement for this song.

Thanks for visiting!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

May’s End – Part 2

26 Tue May 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in plants, Rural Diary, trees, wild animals

≈ 37 Comments

Tags

Brown Hare, Bugle, Common Comfrey, cow parsley, Creeping Buttercup, Dandelion clock, field maple, garlic mustard, Greater Stitchwort, ground-ivy, Hawthorn, Hedgerow Crane's-bill, Herb-Robert, Meadow Buttercup, orange-tip butterfly, red campion, rowan, Suffolk, trees, Tufted Forget-me-not, wild flowers, Wood Avens

This post will be featuring the wild life photographs I have taken away from home, either on short walks to the postbox for example, or when I have stopped the car having seen something special.

The Cow Parsley has been spectacular this year and especially so on the lane I drive down on my way to Norwich each day via Bungay.  I was glad I took the following photos a couple of weeks ago as the road is now closed for road works and I hate to think what has happened to all these lovely flowers.

IMG_4679Cow Parsley and Red Campion (640x480)

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) and Red Campion (Silene dioica)

The Red Campion has never been better in all the time we have lived here too.

IMG_4677Cow Parsley and Red Campion (640x480)

Cow Parsley and Red Campion

IMG_4691Red Campion (640x480)

Red Campion

Male and female flowers are borne on separate plants.

IMG_4681Greater Stitchwort (640x480)

Greater Stitchwort (Stellaria holostea)

This plant is a member of the Pink family and is a shade lover.  It shines luminously in the twilight.  Its stems are very weak and need the support of other plants to gain any height.  The stems snap easily too, and according to the ancient ‘doctrine of signatures’ this means that the plant was thought to be able to help heal broken bones.  The Greek words for whole ‘holos’ and bone ‘osteon’ are incorporated in the botanical name.  The common name of Stitchwort refers not to mending but to another kind of stitch – the horrible pain in the side and similar ailments.  A preparation of stitchwort and acorns taken in wine was a standard remedy.  Stitchwort was regarded, at one time, along with White Campion and Field Poppy, as a ‘thunder flower’ – the picking of which provoked thunder and lightening.

IMG_4682Herb-robert (640x480)

Herb-Robert (Geranium robertianum)

Herb-Robert has orange pollen.

IMG_4685Herb-robert and Ground-ivy (640x480)

Herb-Robert with Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea)

IMG_4688Bugle (480x640)

Bugle (Ajuga reptans) seems to be growing everywhere this year too. I don’t remember seeing any at all last year.

Bugle was thought of as a cure-all by medieval herbalists.  It healed all kinds of wounds, thrusts and stabs, as well as ulcers and broken bones.  It was also highly recommended for delirium tremens brought on by too much alcohol.  It has been called one of the mildest and best narcotics in the world.  The Latin name Ajuga and the common name Bugle appear to be corruptions of one or more of the plants earlier names of ‘abuga’, ‘abija’ and ‘bugula’.

IMG_4693Garlic Mustard (640x448)

Jack-by-the-Hedge or Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

This is the only British member of the cabbage family to smell very strongly of garlic.  The smell of the small white flowers isn’t particularly pleasant but it attracts midges and hoverflies.  The plant is self-pollinating.  In June the pale green caterpillars of the Orange-tip butterfly can be seen feeding on the long green seed pods from which they are almost indistinguishable.

IMG_4695Orange Tip on Cow Parsley (640x480)

This is a photo of an Orange-tip butterfly feeding on the nectar from Cow Parsley. The camouflage is very good!

IMG_4696Creeping Buttercup (640x480)

Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens)

This plant spreads very quickly with long-rooted runners.

IMG_4697Field with buttercups (640x480)

This is one of the fields next to the lane I drive down every day. It has a lot of buttercups in it (probably Meadow Buttercup (Ranunculus acris) )

IMG_4698View from lane (640x480)

Another view from the lane.

IMG_4699Lane (640x480)

This shows the mass of Cow Parsley on the verge of the lane with two grand-looking Horse-chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) on the corner.

IMG_4703Dandelion clock (2) (640x488)

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg. ) fruit or ‘clock’. 

IMG_4704Herb Bennet (640x480)

Wood Avens or Herb Bennet (Geum urbanum)

IMG_4705Forget-me-not (640x480)

I think this may be Tufted Forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa)

IMG_4707Lane (480x640)

This is the lane as it goes up a gentle rise towards St Margaret’s church.

IMG_4729Common Comfrey (640x480)

Common Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

IMG_4730Hawthorn (640x480)

Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

IMG_4732Hedgerow Crane's-bill (640x480)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill (Geranium pyrenaicum)

IMG_4731Wild flowers (640x480)

Hedgerow Crane’s-bill with Cow Parsley and Ground-ivy

IMG_4733Field Maple (640x480)

Field Maple (Acer campastre) flowers.

IMG_4736Rowan (640x480)

Rowan or Mountain Ash (Sorbus aucuparia). This is a photo I forgot to include in Part 1 as this is a tree in our garden.

Lastly, I include a couple of photos (not good) of a young Hare, or Leveret (as young Hares are called) that I saw in our garden yesterday.  It was very curious, investigating everything.  It kept on the move all the time, which made photographing it very difficult, suddenly racing off in one direction only to come racing back again next minute.  It appeared to run for the joy of running!

IMG_4777Leveret (640x480) IMG_4778Leveret (640x480)

Thank-you for visiting!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

A Few Things I’ve Seen in my Garden.

21 Tue Apr 2015

Posted by Clare Pooley in amphibians, fish, Gardening, plants, Rural Diary, trees, Uncategorized, wild birds

≈ 38 Comments

Tags

bird's nest, birds, Common Frog, cowslip, daffodils, ducks, fish, flowers, frogspawn, garden, Great Tit, ground-ivy, hazel, Hazel bud-gall, horse chestnut, lichen, Mallard, marsh marigold, moss, pond, primrose, primula, spring, Suffolk, sweet violet, tadpoles, trees, Water Mint

IMG_1999Mallard drakes (2) (640x439)

Two very handsome Mallard drakes (Anas platyrhynchos).

IMG_2001Ground-ivy (640x427)

Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea). Many of the newer leaves are purple and the plant has a slightly unpleasant minty scent.

IMG_2002Primroses (640x427)

As I have mentioned before, when we moved to this house there were no Primroses (Primula vulgaris) in the garden at all. We now have a few plants here and there on the banks of our ditches.

IMG_2003Cowslips (640x427)

The Cowslips (Primula veris) are beginning to bloom. We have always had plenty of these!

IMG_2004Primula hybrid (2) (640x459)

A primula hybrid that arrived unbidden about three years ago. I rather like it.

The house next door to us is the former village school.  I am not sure when it closed but a friend of ours from church used to attend it during the 1940’s.  Where our house and garden is now, there was a meadow full of wild flowers and our friend walked across it every day to collect the milk for the school from the farm next door.  These wild flowers we have in our garden are all that’s left of the hundreds that used to be here up to about 50 or 60 years ago.  I hope that we can hang on to these few and perhaps, by not using chemicals, encourage them to spread.

IMG_2005Sweet violet (640x427)

Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)

IMG_4348Parcel box with nest (640x480)

This is our parcels and newspaper box at the end of our drive. We noticed during the winter that it was starting to rot and needed replacing. It appears that we weren’t the only ones to notice the state the box was in. I opened it the other day to find something had made a hole in the back of it ( you can see where the light is shining through just below my thumb as I lift the lid). The next day I found this straw and moss had been put in there. Richard saw a Great Tit (Parus major) flying away from the box so I suspect this is a Great Tit’s nest. I carefully peeped into it a day or so later and found the whole box stuffed full of moss and we can also see lots of straw sticking out from where the box sides are coming away from the base. We have tied up the box and put a ‘not in use’ sign on it and we now await the happy arrival of baby Great Tits.

I knew that Tits nested in holes and I also was aware that Willow Tits excavated their own holes but I hadn’t realised that Great Tits also excavated holes to nest in.

Lichen and moss-covered wall

The top of the brick gate-post at the end of our drive is covered in moss and lichen but because we haven’t had much rain recently, it isn’t looking as good as usual. Birds have been collecting the moss for their nests too.

Lichen on top of wall

This is a close-up of one of the lichens.

IMG_2016Marsh Marigold (640x427)

The Marsh-marigold or King Cup (Caltha palustris) is flowering in the pond.

IMG_2017Marsh Marigold (427x640)

I love its shiny yellow petals.

IMG_2024Daffodils (640x427)

I took this photo of the daffodils round the pond over a week ago and I am glad I did. On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week we had very warm weather (24 degrees C on Wednesday!) and the daffodils that had come out earliest began to wilt.

IMG_2019Hazel (640x427)

Earlier this year I posted pictures of these Hazel (Corylus avellana) bud galls. I went to look at them again last week and noticed tiny flies sitting on all of the galls. I wonder if these flies had hatched out of the galls.

IMG_2021Hazel (640x427)

New Hazel leaves

IMG_2022Mint (640x427)

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica). The new shoots are growing round and in the big pond.

IMG_2025Horse Chestnut (640x427)

Horse-chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum). This photo was taken about a week ago.

IMG_2030Horse Chestnut (640x427)

This photo of our Horse-chestnut tree was taken on the same day. These leaves are higher and get more sunlight. I was pleased to see that the flower panicles (candles) were growing nicely.

IMG_1997Frogspawn (640x427)

I saw the frogs spawning but unfortunately didn’t have my camera with me. I took this photo of the spawn later in the day. This is the first time I have found frogspawn in our pond and was surprised at how late in the year it was. We have a windswept, exposed garden which may account for it.

IMG_1998Frogspawn (640x427)

There were lots of eggs and I was glad that the fish that live in the pond hadn’t come out of hibernation yet.

IMG_2032Tadpoles (640x427)

I took this picture a week later as the tadpoles were hatching out. The fish still hadn’t woken up!

Two days after this the tadpoles had dispersed but I had also seen the fish swimming in the pond and leaping to catch flies.  They were probably feasting on tadpoles too.

I found a dead fish on the path round the pond again – I found one last year that had been caught by the Heron who had been disturbed by one of us.  I don’t know what had caught this year’s fish as there was no stab mark on it.  It is interesting to see the workings of the food-chain.  We are part of it as we get bitten by the flies that the fish eat!

Thank-you for visiting!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...

Pollution and Other Matters

03 Thu Apr 2014

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

amelanchier, belemnite, blackbird, Blue Tit, claypipe, Garden Warbler, ground-ivy, Jacob's Sheep, jonquils, Mistle Thrush, pollution, rhubarb, tulip, violets, woodpecker feather

The warmer weather that was forecast certainly arrived bringing with it hazy sky – and pollution.  Everything outside was covered with a coating of fine yellow dust – from the Sahara Desert – and this was especially noticeable on our cars.  Here in East Anglia our air isn’t as pure as we would like.  As we live in the countryside many people think that the air is fresh and clean here; but they would be wrong.  The prevailing wind from the south-west brings pollution from London and winds from the south-east bring pollution from the Continent – mainland Europe.  The cleanest air is on winds from the north-east but that is also the coldest!  East Anglia is a mainly agricultural area with plenty of agricultural vehicles and large trucks delivering feed, grain and other supplies on the narrow lanes.  The farmers use herbicides and insecticides and the crops are sprayed at least two or three times a year.  Because there is very little public transport we all have to drive everywhere that is too far to walk or cycle.  R and I are fortunate to live in an area where the local farmers are trying to make the land better for wildlife.  Wide strips of land are left fallow around each field with the hope that wild flowers will colonise them and animals and birds will find more food and shelter there.

Since coming to live in Suffolk twenty-six years ago I have developed asthma, hay-fever and other allergies that I didn’t have in south-east London and Kent.  R also has hay-fever and E has asthma.  This morning both R and I woke feeling quite unwell with headache, sore throat and other hay-fever symptoms.  Fortunately we always have a stock of anti-histamine tablets in the house!

Yesterday, after getting home from taking Mum out, I had a letter to post so walked down the lane to the postbox.  I was hoping to see the Jacob’s sheep in a field close to us as I had heard them arrive there on Monday.  They always bleat a lot when they are in a new field but soon settle down and if I hadn’t heard them arrive I wouldn’t have known they were there.  It was quite difficult to see the sheep and lambs as the hedge is high and thick but I managed a couple of photos.

 

 

004Jacob ewes & lambs (640x480)

Jacob ewes and lambs

003Jacob lamb (640x480)

Jacob lamb

I then took a few more pictures of the garden, fed the birds and watered the tubs of flowers.  More and more birds are singing and the dawn chorus is getting louder and louder.  Yesterday I woke to hear what I thought was a Garden Warbler, our second summer visitor, singing in a tree across the lane.  As I was still sleepy I wasn’t sure whether it was a Garden Warbler or a Blackcap, the songs being quite similar, but having heard it again today I am sure it is a Garden Warbler.  We do get both birds here in the summer but the song I heard yesterday and today was definitely the faster more garbled song of the Garden Warbler.  The Song Thrush has been singing all day, every day for some time now and yesterday he was joined by the Mistle Thrush.  We now have a wonderful chorus of birds in the garden – too many to mention without it becoming a long and boring list.  Here is a photo of a male Blackbird and a Blue Tit on the peanut feeder.

008Blackbird (640x480)

Blackbird

009Bluetit on feeder (640x480)

Bluetit on the peanut feeder. A Chaffinch is in the tree at the back.

 

 

 

 

Today I took some more photos of the garden and also of some objects I have found in the garden.  The belemnite I found in my herb garden on Monday.  I remember finding lots of these when on holiday with A when she was little at Charmouth on the Dorset coast.  They are fossils of squid-like creatures.

010Belemnite (640x480)

 

The feather I found a couple of weeks ago.  No doubt from a Greater Spotted Woodpecker.

012Spotted feather (640x480)

 

The broken old clay pipe I also found in my herb garden but about five years ago.  I can’t bear to get rid of it!

013Clay pipe (640x480)

 

The rest of the photos are of plants, flowers and trees.

White violets in the grass verge near my mother’s cottage.

001White violets (480x640)

 

Ground ivy.  This is an evergreen wild plant and if the leaves are bruised they smell minty.  Also known as Alehoof, the leaves used to be added to ale during brewing to clear the fermenting liquid and sharpen the flavour.  Even after hops were introduced to England in the 16th century liquor flavoured with ground-ivy was still made and sold for a time.  Another name for ground-ivy is gill and a drink called gill tea was made by infusing the leaves with boiling water and adding honey.  This was supposed to alleviate coughs and other chest disorders and was still being sold by street vendors in London in the 19th century.   Culpepper says ‘The juice dropped into the ear doth wonderfully help the noise and singing of them, and helpeth the hearing which is decayed.’

006Ground ivy (640x480)

 

Some jonquils.

014Jonquils (640x480) 023Jonquil (640x480)

 

 

A pink tulip.

022Pink tulip (640x480)

 

Rhubarb!

024Rhubarb (640x480)

 

The Amelanchier is just coming into flower.

025Amelanchier (640x480)

 

R and I discovered another goose nest in the undergrowth on the other side of the pond yesterday.  Unfortunately, today the goose was no longer there and all the eggs gone.  The good thing about nesting on the little island is that foxes and other predators cannot get to you so easily.  The bad thing about our island is that it isn’t big enough for more than one goose nest.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Tumblr
  • Print
  • Pocket
  • LinkedIn

Like this:

Like Loading...
Follow A Suffolk Lane on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 686 other subscribers.

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!

My Posts

Feb 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728  
« Feb    

Pages

  • About my Blog
  • GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) and This Site
  • My Life in a Suffolk Lane

Archives

Blogs I Follow

Posts I Like

amphibians art Arts and Crafts churches cooking Days out domestic animals family fish Folk Traditions Gardening Historic Buildings holidays Insects Landscaping literature music Norwich plants Rural Diary seashore theatre trees Uncategorized walking weather wild animals wild birds wild flowers woodland

Tags

architecture autumn beach berries birds blackbird blackthorn butterfly church clouds common knapweed cow parsley crocus daffodils Diary dogwood family field maple flowers fungus garden gardening geese greylags ground-ivy Halesworth Hawthorn heather holiday Holly Holy Week horse chestnut Hoverfly insects ivy Lake District Lent lesser celandine lichen Lords and Ladies Mallard mallards Minsmere moorhen moss music Norwich Peak District pheasant plants pond ponds primrose primroses Rain rooks Rumburgh Rumburgh Church sheep Sheffield snow snowdrops spring Suffolk Suffolk Wildlife Trust sunset the Beck trees viburnum bodnantense walking weather wild cherry wild flowers winter-flowering honeysuckle witch-hazel

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Goodreads

Blog at WordPress.com.

Interesting Literature

A Library of Literary Interestingness

naturechirp

Celebrating God's creatures, birds and plants...

Sophie Neville

Writer

Going Batty in Wales

Developing a more sustainable lifestyle in SW Wales

Our Lake District Escapades

Exploring the Lake District and beyond

Short Walks & Long Paths

Wandering trails on the coast of Wales

Dukes and Princes

History, heritage and genealogy about Europe's highest ranking aristocrats

The Biking Gardener

An English persons experience of living and gardening in Ireland

Nan's Farm

A Journal Of Everyday Life

Walk the Old Ways

Rambling Journeys in Britain with John Bainbridge. Fighting for the Right to Roam. Campaigning to Protect Our Countryside.

Writer Side UP!

Waking the Writer Side...and keeping it "Up!"

Meggie's Adventures

Travel, thank you notes and other stories from Meg King-Sloan

amusicalifeonplanetearth

Music and the Thoughts It Can Inspire

lovefoundation.co.uk

Traveling Tortuga

Simply Living Well

Pakenham Water Mill

Historic watermill in the beautiful Suffolk countryside

Take It Easy

Retired, not expired: words from the after(work)life. And music. Lots of music!

Secret Diary Of A Church of England Vicar's Wife

thanksfortheadventureorg.wordpress.com/

The Beat Goes On

#TBGO

PLESZAK

Frank Pleszak's Blogs

John Bainbridge Writer

Indie Writer and Publisher

roughwighting

Life in a flash - a weekly writing blog

Walking the Old Ways

Rambling in the British Countryside

CapKane

thoughts on social realities

SkyeEnt

Jottings from Skye

jodie richelle

embracing my inner homemaker

Skizzenbuch/Blog

Just another WordPress.com weblog

Author Kevin Cooper

Life, Love, Tears & Laughter: Then, Now & Hereafter.

Have Bag, Will Travel

The Call of the Pen

Flash Fiction, Book Reviews, Devotionals and other things.

John's Postcards

Art in Nature

You dream, I photographe it !

Smile! You’re in Barnier World......

theinfill

the things that come to hand

Dr. Mary Ann Niemczura

Author of "A Past Worth Telling"

Provincial Woman

LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS

A Quiet Celebration of Life on a British Farm

The Pink Wheelbarrow

Luanne Castle: Poetry and Other Words (and cats!)

Poetry, Other Words, and Cats

The Family Kalamazoo

A genealogical site devoted to the history of the DeKorn and Zuidweg families of Kalamazoo and the Mulder family of Caledonia

everythingchild

The Book Owl

Canberra's Green Spaces

people, places and green spaces in Canberra

Paul Harley Photographer

WALKS WITH PUMPKIN

bowlandclimber

Walks and climbs

M T McGuire Authorholic

Humorous fantasy fiction author... the books are quite funny too... seeking an agent, a publisher and my fortune.

Tails from a Norfolk cottage

Moments from a Norfolk Country Cottage. The furred & feathered & the worn and weathered. A Druid Herbalist with a Passion for Cats, Vintage, Dogs, Interiors, Nature, Hens, Organic Veggie Food, Plants & Trees & a Kinship with The Earth.

Woodland Wild flowers

Of the Wye valley and beyond.

  • Follow Following
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Join 686 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Suffolk Lane
    • Customise
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    %d bloggers like this: