High Summer Walk Part 1

Tags

agrimony, bindweed, common knapweed, common ragwort, Gatekeeper butterfly, hoary plantain, hogweed, hop trefoil, oil-seed rape, peas, pineapple weed, ploughing, poppy, Ringlet butterfly, seagulls, silverweed, thatched barn, thrips, thunder-flies, walking

I had been shopping in Norwich with E two weeks ago and the weather had just changed for the better.  We had had a lot of very humid weather, with heavy rain and thunder and lightening.  We had had the usual accompaniment to humid weather of flying and swarming ants and thunder-flies.  These are tiny little thrips with feathery wings; a millimetre long and thread-thin.  They get everywhere – in your ears and eyes, up your nose, in your hair, crawling on your skin until you feel like screaming. They come in the house and die in heaps on every surface; they even get behind the glass in your picture frames.  And then, after a storm at the weekend, we woke on the Monday to fresh air, warm sunshine and a gentle breeze. As we were driving home I had such a longing to be out of doors, walking in the fields that instead of having lunch I found the camera and my hat and went off down the lane.  The verge at the side of our lane had just been cut but there were still a few flowers hanging on there.

Beautiful pink and white bindweed.  The flowers are almond scented.

The harvesting had begun.

Oil-seed rape stubble.

The stubble is almost a foot high and so hard and sharp like knives; it is almost impossible to walk through.

You can see for miles from here

There is a UFO in this shot. Is it a bird?  Is it a plane? No!  It’s…. you tell me!

Ploughing had started in one of the fields.  Seagulls love to follow the plough as it turns up lots of worms and grubs.  Black-headed, herring and lesser black-backed gulls.

A rather tired and tatty ringlet butterfly

This is agrimony and there has been a lot of this about this year.  Apparently it has a scent reminiscent of apricots; I haven’t noticed this but then I don’t have a very good sense of smell – at least not for nice smells!  The ancients found this a very versatile plant as it was held to be a remedy against snake-bite, poor sight, loss of memory and liver complaints.

Silverweed leaves. Potentilla anserina

Common Knapweed buds. These plants have been flowering for many weeks now; and for many to come if these buds are anything to go by.  Also known as Hardheads.

We have had lots of hogweed too

Hoary plantain. This is an unusual plantain in that it produces a delicate scent which attracts bees and other insects.  All other British plantains are wind pollinated.

A field of peas.

For many years, peas were grown everywhere in this part of Suffolk as there was a frozen food factory in Lowestoft on the coast.  We were all used to the enormous pea harvesters and the smell of burnt peas wafting on the air.  Then the factory was closed.  Many people were made redundant and the farmers here had to find a different crop to grow and had to sell their harvesters.  In recent years peas have started to be grown again.  Some farmers are working together as a collective, sharing harvesters and have found other customers for their peas.  This field is being left until the peas have dried.  I don’t know if the plants will just be dug into the soil as a source of nitrogen or if the plants are used for animal feed or the dried peas sold to a processing factory.  Perhaps someone can tell me. Red is so difficult to photograph.  This photo looks as though I’ve done some careless ‘photoshopping’. You will recognise this photo from my previous post.  This works better as the poppies take up more of the photo but they still don’t look ‘real’.

A snail hiding in a hogweed seedhead

A female Gatekeeper butterfly

An enormous thatched barn

This is hop trefoil.  The stems are downy and the seed-heads are covered with dead petals making them look like hops.

There was a lot pink and yellow.

Pineapple Mayweed

This smells of pineapple when crushed.

This is Common Ragwort, a poisonous plant and the food plant of the Cinnabar Moth caterpillar.

I will continue this walk in Part 2.

A Suffolk Garden in July – Cultivated Flowers, Fruit and Vegetables

Tags

Asian lily, begonia, blackberries, borage, college acceptance, dahlia, English mace, erodium chrysanthemum, fennel, fruit trees, fuchsia, hydrangea, mint, morning glory, peas, rose, runner beans, sempervivum, untidy garden, water lily

We returned on 9th July from our short holiday to find a very over-grown garden.  I must admit to loving the green lushness of the garden when it hasn’t been tended lately.  There is so much to be seen – wild flowers (or weeds if you prefer), insects, birds and wild animals have had the place to themselves for a while and have made themselves comfortably at home.

As soon as I could, I went out for a quick tour of the garden.  There had been a lot of wind and rain so the garden flowers were a little battered.  R’s dahlias had grown very tall during our absence and a couple had lost a stem or two.  R quickly did some tidying up and we admired the blooms on plants, some of which were already over five foot tall.

The runner beans were doing very well and we were able to start harvesting them a few days later.  I read fairly recently that when runner beans were first introduced to this country it was as ornamental plants; no-one thought to eat the beans themselves for some time.  Many people say they don’t like runner beans but I am sure this is because they have eaten old and woody beans, and I don’t blame them!  Horrible!  The beans have to be picked before they get too big and should be eaten straight away.  Our first beans were very juicy but didn’t have much flavour, probably because we hadn’t had much sunshine.  The ones we have eaten most recently which have had the benefit of a little sunshine have tasted much better.  

The peas were ready to pick too and were the best peas we had tasted in a long time.  They have all been eaten now!

Because of the rain, the mint had grown very well.

Variegated apple mint

This is a lovely mint grown from a rooted cutting Mum gave me. She has always had it in her garden and doesn’t know what type it is.

Just before we went away the blackberries had started to ripen.  We picked a few and took them away with us and delicious they were too.

Unfortunately, while we were away quite a few were lost to the bad weather, birds, mice, wasps etc.  They have only recently started cropping again and they are soooo good!

This is English Mace, achillea ageratum, and as you can see it is a member of the same family as Yarrow.  The leaves actually do taste mildly of mace, the outside shell of nutmeg.  The leaves can be made into a tea or just added as they are to culinary dishes.

This is feverfew, another one of my herbs.  I bought one small plant a number of years ago and its seeds have spread all over the garden.  This one I found growing in a crack in the path.  The insects love it especially black-fly so it is useful as a companion plant attracting good insects and also keeping black-fly off broad beans etc.  

Feverfew is a febrifuge; it induces perspiration which lowers the temperature in fevers.  It is a useful herb to use during childbirth as it regulates contractions and recently has been found as an effective remedy for headaches and migraine.  A tincture can be made from the leaves and then applied locally to relieve the pain and irritation of insect bites.  The tincture can be made into a lotion by adding it to distilled water.  This can be applied to the body as protection against attack by flying insects.  A wonder-herb!  It does smell a bit odd though!

My bronze fennel I have already spoken about in a previous post.  I love the aniseed smell which pervades the front of the house on rather damp evenings.  It is a useful flavouring herb for use in cooking but also the seeds can be eaten to ease indigestion and disperse wind/gas etc.  Usually fennel grows to a height of about 4ft but the one growing at the front of the house is over 6ft tall.

I found this self-seeded borage plant near the hedge

A shiny white water lily

Purple Morning Glory

I had such difficulty getting the original seeds to germinate in a heated seed-tray as recommended on the seed packet.  If I had known that I would still be benefitting from self-seeded plants seven years later I wouldn’t have worried and just chucked the lot out on the gravel round the garage.  The seeds survive through extremely cold winters with rain, ice and snow.  Admittedly I planted the first young plants up against the house and in very well-drained soil.

This Hydrangea has a strong pink colour

A newly purchased fuchsia was doing very well.

All our fuchsias died in the severe winter of 2012-13.  After a year without them I felt the need of another plant.  This is one I have had before.  It is fairly hardy and it is easy to take cuttings from.

I didn’t think I liked begonias until E bought me this one last year.

A new Asian lily was flowering

Some beautiful deep-red roses were flowering in R’s border

Pretty pink and green flowers of the sempervivum or houseleek were already past their best

The delicate flowers of erodium chrysanthemum were just beginning to flower

All the fruit trees, the apples, crab-apples, pear, damson and hazelnut were doing very well and the fruits were swelling.  We hadn’t lost many in the June drop.

We were all very pleased on our return to get a letter telling E that she had been accepted at City College Norwich and would be starting there in September.  She is so relieved and believes she will be getting her life back again now.  We sincerely hope and pray she will.

 

A Windy Day and a Wet Blanket

Tags

Escallonia 'Apple Blossom', greylags, laburnum, moorhens, peas, potatoes, runner beans, tomatoes

The day began sparklingly.  Green and blue so intense and raindrops scintillating in the sun and breeze.  I went out into the garden quite early to open the greenhouse and have a wander about.  The wind was picking up and blossom was flying from the trees.  I went back indoors and collected my camera.

The greylags keep paying us flying visits.  The female goes onto the island and sorts over the old nest.  Poor thing !  I wonder what happened while we were away.  Did the eggs hatch out and then did she lose her goslings or did they not hatch at all?  Did something (an otter?) eat the eggs or were they infertile?

Amusingly, while the female was busy on the island the gander was attacked by a moorhen.  Moorhen are quite feisty birds when they want to be and despite being much smaller than the gander, this one made the gander run very fast!  I walked round to the far side of the big pond and could hear moorhen chicks calling but couldn’t see them in the thick reeds.  Moorhens feed their chicks until they are quite big and are very caring parents until they are spooked.  They then run off as fast as their silly feet allow them, leaving the chicks to fend for themselves!  Why?

I had a look at R’s vegetable patch and admired the potatoes already coming up.

We are growing two types of potato – white mid-season and red lates.  I like it when R grows potatoes as they store well and I don’t need to buy them from about August until Christmas or later.

The trees were whipping about in the wind so I thought I’d better take a picture of the laburnums before the wind and rain stripped them of all their flowers.

 

These laburnum trees were meant to look the same, as I have been hoping to make a little arch with them.  But look at them!  One is squat and spreading outwards and the other is reaching for the skies!  I will still try to make an arch but I don’t think it will end up looking like ‘Homes and Gardens’ material.  They also grew A LOT last year and I didn’t get my act together and do anything with the trees at the right time – oh dear!

Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’.  The book I have says this is a dense evergreen shrub.  This one is not at all dense and I’m not sure why not.  Other Escallonias we’ve had in the past have been really good shrubs – good enough for hedging with, but this loses all its leaves in the middle and a number of branches die off after a year or two.  I think I will cut it hard back and see what happens.  It may also need a lot of feeding as the soil it’s in is a little stony.

I went into the greenhouse.

Some of R’s runner bean plants.

And some of his peas.

His tomato seedlings are doing well too.

The heavy showers started shortly after I returned to the house and they’ve continued on and off all day.  A couple of times I’ve ventured out only to have to dash back in again, usually from the furthest parts of the garden.

And if you are wondering where the wet blanket comes in – that’s me with my woolly head and deafness, my runny nose and tickly cough.