In My Garden Again

Tags

bird's nest, Brown Hare, Brown Hawker dragonfly, comma butterfly, Common Fleabane, Common Hawthorn berries, cooking apples, Crabapples, Creeping Thistle, Fish-hook Cactus, garden, hogweed, Hornet, Hoverfly, leveret, mole hill, moonrise, pears, speckled wood butterfly, Suffolk, sunset, Sweet Pepper, Water Mint, Zinnia

This is another collection of things I’ve seen in my garden or near my home during the past month.  The weather until a few days ago has been wonderful!  Warm, sometimes very hot, mainly dry and sunny; it has been a lovely late summer.

Flower on Richard’s Fish-hook Cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni)

This cactus nearly flowered for the first time two years ago but the warm, sunny weather didn’t last long enough and the buds shrivelled.  Last year was too dull and cool so no buds formed at all.  This year however, one of the three buds opened and stayed open for three days.

Sweet pepper ‘Sweet Banana’

Richard is growing sweet peppers this year and this is a photo of them when they were just starting to turn red.  Unfortunately, the camera focused on the leaf not the pepper.

Zinnia flower

Zinnia flower-bud

Richard bought a tray of Zinnia flowers from the garden centre.  They took their time to get established but eventually they got going and have been so bright and cheerful for the past month.

Common Fleabane (Pulicaria dysenteria) has been everywhere I’ve looked this summer but this poor shot is the only photo of it I’ve taken.

For centuries, the leaves of Fleabane were hung in bunches from ceilings or dried and burnt as a fumigant to repel fleas.  Richard Mabey in his ‘Flora Britannica’ says the plant is a relative of the species which supplies the insecticide ‘pyrethrum’.

Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) seed-heads

Speckled Wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria)

This is a woodland butterfly and its markings make it difficult to spot in dappled shade.

A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album) on Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

Creeping Thistle (Cirsium arvense) with a Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus) on the lowest flowerhead

The crabapples on our species crabapple tree look like cherries. Woodpigeons are very fond of them.

We don’t have many apples this year. This one looks very good – a cooking apple.

We have what looks like a good crop of pears but sadly many of the fruits are rotting on the tree.

Common Hawthorn berries, known as Haws. (Crataegus monogyna)

The Hawthorns are full of fruit; some people say this means we are to have a hard winter.  I think it means we had good pollination in the spring.

A female Brown Hawker dragonfly (Aeshna grandis)

I took this photo in a hurry as Brown Hawkers are such restless dragonflies and only perch for a few seconds.  I love their amber wings!

Another poor photo, this time of a Hornet (Vespa crabro)

We have had a Hornets’ nest under the tiles of the garage roof this summer.  They are busy insects and carry on flying until well after sunset, unlike wasps who retire early.  We have also got a wasps’ nest under the house roof tiles near our bedroom window.  I could hear them chewing and munching away through the night when they were first constructing the nest in the early summer.

This is a mole hill that appeared in the rather dry border next to the conservatory. The hill got bigger the following day and many spring bulbs were uprooted.

We haven’t had much rain during the past month and the moles are searching for worms.  The worms congregate where there is moisture i.e. in flower-beds (if they are watered) or next to paths or buildings where water runs off into the soil.

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset

Sunset with mist

And shortly afterwards on the same evening…..

Moonrise

Moonrise

We were pleased to welcome a new visitor to our garden; a Leveret, a young Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)

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We first noticed it when it was very close to our kitchen window so you see part of the window frame in my photos!  It then moved a little further away and was easier to photograph.

The best time of day to see hares is early morning or at dusk, as during the day they rest in grass, scrubland or in a ploughed furrow.  They crouch low against the ground with their ears laid flat and are well camouflaged.  If they are disturbed they are capable of running very fast – 35 mph/56kph – and run with their black-topped tail held downwards.  They have large staring eyes, large black-tipped ears and powerful hind legs; they are shy and alert creatures.  They typically live in open country, preferring not to live in direct contact with grazing animals and they are unlikely to be found in hayfields.  They eat a wide selection of grasses and plants of open country as well as crops of cereal, clover, alfalfa, beets and potatoes.  In winter a hare will dig for green plants under the snow and will eat buds and bark from bushes and trees, including fruit trees.  They have suffered in areas of intensive farming and where herbicides are regularly used.  Pesticides contaminate their food and may kill leverets.

In March and April hares can be seen leaping and chasing about which gives rise to the saying ‘mad, March Hares’.   They often stand up on their hind legs and box each other; this may be two males vying for social dominance or, as is now thought more likely, a female (Jill) rebuffing a male (Jack).   Leverets are born in the open with a full coat of fur and with their eyes open.  They are born in litters of about three and the mother moves them immediately to another safe place which makes it more difficult for predators to find them.  Each leveret is placed in a ‘form’ – a depression made in long grass – on its own where it lies low waiting for visits from its mother.  This behaviour is very like that of deer.

While watering my green beans the other day I noticed some tiny white eggshells lying on the ground and wondered where they could have come from.  Richard looked into the branches of the Laburnum tree above us and saw a tiny nest that I hadn’t been able to see – (I am quite a lot shorter than he is).  It was a windy day and the pieces of shell must have been dislodged by the breeze.  A week later I found the nest on the ground and here is my photograph of it.

I do not know what bird built this nest.

As you can see from the photo it is only 11 cm long and about 6 cm wide.  It is made of tiny twigs, grasses, leaves and moss all woven together and is lined with sheep’s wool and white feathers.

And finally, here is my music selection for this post.

Thanks for visiting!

A Walk in the Goyt Valley – Peak District Holiday

Tags

Bakewell, bridge, Butterbur, Canada Goose, Coot, donkey, ducks, eyebright, Fernilee Reservoir Dam, Field Scabious, Goosander, Goyt Vallry, Great Burnet, Greater Bird's-foot-trefoil, gulls, harebell, marble galls, Peak District, River Goyt, River Wye, sheep, St James' church Taxal, Taxal, Water Mint, watercress, Whaley Bridge, White Beak-sedge

The day after our walk on Ramshaw Rocks we met Alice and Elinor in Bakewell so that we could see how they were and have a meal with them.  They travelled to Bakewell on the bus after Alice had finished work for the day in Sheffield.  We went for a coffee together and told them the sad news of Richard’s mum’s death.  They were both upset but were grateful that we had waited so that we could tell them face-to-face.  We then went for a walk through the town and ended up by the river – our favourite spot.

The attractive old bridge over the river Wye.

There is always plenty to see on the river. This duck sitting on her nest, for example.

A female Goosander (Mergus merganser)

A Coot (Fulica atra)

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) and Gulls

A duck – partly Mallard I think!

After a pleasant meal together Richard and I saw the girls onto their bus and then we returned to our caravan.

The following day we went for a walk along the valley of the River Goyt.  We left the car in a lay-by just south of Whaley Bridge and followed a track, steep at first, from the lay-by down through woodland towards the River Goyt.

Richard on the track through the wood.

The day was very cloudy and there were frequent showers of rain but they weren’t heavy and didn’t diminish the pleasure of our walk.  Richard had walked here very often when he was younger, either with the Scouts or with friends but the area was new to me.

A Field Scabious flower (Knautia arvensis)

A meadow between the track and the river (which is under the trees).

The River Goyt

Cattle

R. Goyt

R. Goyt

The meadows next to the river were pleasant to walk across.  You can see from this photo how gloomy the day was.

Eyebright (Euphrasia officinalis agg)

Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia)

Greater Bird’s-foot-trefoil (Lotus pedunculatus)

A little cascade

The River Goyt with a wooden bridge just visible under the trees.

River Goyt

Richard walking along the track next to Wild Rhubarb/Butterbur (Petasites hybridus). It was about as tall as me (5′ 4″)

We were making our way towards some water-works buildings.  I took some photographs of them and some plants I saw but (fortunately for you!) they didn’t come out.  The light wasn’t good enough I think.

We walked up the very steep drive belonging to the waterworks and then, at the top, turned towards the road that crosses Fernilee Reservoir Dam.

The reservoir

I liked the look of this old bridge from the road to a maintenance building.

Richard told me that this bridge is probably an original one for the dam and therefore quite old.  Bridges aren’t built this way any more.

We then walked back along the other side of the river which is down in the trees below.  There were some lovely views from the path.

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A variety of plants and textures

We saw some beautiful Great Burnet flowers (Sanguisorba officinalis) in the field next to the path.

Great Burnet – these plants are becoming increasingly rare as water-meadows are drained.

This could be Water-cress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

White Beak-sedge (Rhynchospora alba)

Marble Galls on Oak.

Sheep

Sheep

We eventually got to the hamlet of Taxal where we had a look at the church dedicated to St James.

We found a very friendly donkey in the churchyard wearing a rather fetching veil.

This donkey had a job to do – eating its way through all the overgrown grass and plants in the yard.  The veil kept the flies out of its eyes.

I like donkeys!

St James’ church

River Goyt

River Goyt

We crossed the river by a wooden bridge, walked up the steep path to the lay-by and found our car again.

Thanks for visiting!

A Few Things I’ve Seen in my Garden.

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

Two very handsome Mallard drakes (Anas platyrhynchos).

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

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.

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

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.

Sweet Violet (Viola odorata)

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.

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.

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

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

I love its shiny yellow petals.

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.

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.

New Hazel leaves

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

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

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.

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.

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

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!

Wild Flowers in my Garden

Tags

Bittersweet, Black Horehound, cat's-ear, Common Field-speedwell, Common Mallow, Common Spotted-orchid, Dog-rose, dogwood, Elder, fern, Field Forget-me-not, Field Penny-cress, Field Rose, Fox-and-cubs, Lesser Stitchwort, Midland Hawthorn, Oxeye Daisy, Rough Chervil, scentless mayweed, Selfheal, Smooth Sow-thistle, Smooth Tare, Soft Rush, Suffolk, summer, Water Mint, weeds, White Clover, wild flowers

I will be publishing a short series of posts this autumn in which I will show you some of the wild flowers I have seen in my garden this summer.  The photographs will be ones I haven’t used before.

Many of you will wonder why we have so many weeds in our garden.  Well, er, I like weeds/wild flowers!  We have decided that the part of the garden around the big pond should be a wild garden and this is the place where I have found most of my plants to photograph.  We do try to control the worst of the brambles and nettles and my husband mows and hacks his way through it all regularly.  When we have time we will manage the area a little better.

These hawthorn flowers from our hedge have a definite pink tinge to them. I believe this is a Midland Hawthorn (Crataegus laevigata).

As any gardener knows, weeds grow anywhere and everywhere and some of the plants in these posts I will have found in the lawn or in a flowerbed.  We have a country garden and it is surrounded by arable fields and common land.  Weed seeds get blown into our garden on the wind.  We have a hedge round most of our land made up of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, ash, elder and dog-rose among others.  We also have ditches almost all the way round our land – our moat to protect us from flooding.  We are visited by many birds and wild animals and all these creatures may have contributed to the flora by bringing seeds in on their coats or feathers or in their droppings.  We have had quite a damp summer following on from a mild and wet winter and the plants, bushes and trees have grown and grown!  This year, we have found many more different types of plant than usual, as well.

This post will be featuring flowers from early summer – mid May until the end of June.

Smooth Sow-thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)

The leaves of this plant have been an important dietary supplement for many hundreds of years; they can be boiled like spinach or even taken raw in winter salads.  The plant is thought to be strength-giving and Pliny the Elder says that a dish of smooth sow-thistles was eaten by the legendary Greek hero Theseus before he slew the Minotaur.  The leaves are thought to revive and strengthen animals when they are overcome by heat and its local names of ‘rabbit’s meat’, ‘swine thistle’, ‘dog’s thistle’, ‘hare’s lettuce’ denote this.

I thought I would include this fern in this post although not a flower. It is growing in the hedge at the front of the house and it is the only fern we have. By the end of May it has usually been swamped by other plants in the hedge and we don’t see it again until the next year.

Dog-rose (Rosa canina)

Dog-rose buds.

I was fortunate when I was a little girl to have a mother who didn’t give me nasty medicine like caster oil and syrup of figs.  I was given ‘Halib-orange’ (which tasted of oranges but also contained fish-oil) and also rosehip syrup to which my mother sometimes added a drop or two of cod-liver oil.  Rosehip syrup is rich in vitamin C and I remember it tasting absolutely glorious!

King Henry VII adopted the Tudor rose as his official emblem and the rose has continued to be a symbol of the British monarchy and of England herself.

Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)

I love Oxeye Daisies – also known as marguerite, moon-daisy and dog-daisy – and when roadsides are carpeted with them I know that summer has arrived.  I remember lying in a field full of them when I was very young and looking through their swaying heads at a clear blue sky – a wonderful memory.

Elder flowers (Sambucus nigra)

Both the elder’s flowers and berries are edible and it is widespread on land with a high nitrogen content.  Rabbits do not damage it and it benefits from their droppings so is often to be found near warrens.

Field Penny-cress (Thlaspi arvense)

Field Penny-cress (Thlaspi arvense)

This plant got its name from the circular shape of its fruit which were thought to resemble a penny.  When crushed the plant has a strong, unpleasant smell and is avoided by herb-eating animals.  The plant was introduced many, many years ago.  Despite efforts to exterminate it the Field Penny-cress still does very well on agricultural land.

Rough Chervil (Chaerophyllum temulum)

Rough Chervil (Chaerophyllum temulum)

This is another poisonous plant belonging to the parsley family.  The word temulum derives from the latin word for vertigo.  If ingested the effect on human beings is that of drunkenness; staggering incapability and shaking. Most unpleasant.

Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris)

This plant loves our garden.  It is all over the lawn and when we take our eyes off it for a day or two we find it has rushed onto the flowerbeds and made itself at home there.  I read that it likes growing in grassy places (yes, our lawn) and woodland rides, on calcareous and neutral soils. (I do find a lot of chalk in the soil here).  It spreads by putting out runners that root regularly and it produces nutlet fruits as well.  The bees love it and it is a very pretty purple colour.

Cat’s-ear (Hypochaeris radicata)

Bees and many other insects, love this flower too.  It is called ‘Cat’s-ear’ because it was thought the little scale-like bracts on the flower stem look like cat’s ears.  Unfortunately I haven’t been able to get a good enough photograph of these bracts to show you.

Fox-and-cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca)

Fox-and-cubs ((Pilosella aurantiaca)

Looking at the second photo you can see why it is called Fox-and-cubs.  These photos were not taken in my garden but in the churchyard of St Mary’s in Halesworth but I haven’t found an opportunity better than this for posting these pictures.  This is an introduced plant and has spread quite happily out of people’s gardens and into the countryside.

Dogwood flowers (Cornus sanguinea)

This is another plant that prefers calcareous soil.  The stems in winter glow with a rich red colour, the birds love the black berries and the leaves turn a wonderful maroon-red in the autumn.

Bittersweet or Woody Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) which grows all over our garden. This plant was growing in the ditch at the front of the house.

When the flowers first open the petals are spreading or slightly curved.  The older the flower, the more the petals fold themselves back against the stalk.  The berries are green at first, then yellow and finally a bright shiny red.  The berries are poisonous and can cause sickness.  The species name ‘dulcamara’ is derived from two Latin words meaning sweet and bitter.  The toxic alkaloid solanin in the stem, leaves and berries causes them to taste bitter at first and then sweet.

Field Rose (Rosa arvensis)

Though called Field Rose it is usually found in woodland or hedgerows.  This grows prolifically in the narrow strip of woodland on the opposite side of the lane in front of our house.

Smooth Tare (Vicia tetrasperma)

It is very easy to miss this little plant.  It is very slender and scrambles about in grass and in hedgerows.  I found it in the grass round our big pond.  The flowers are borne singly or in pairs and are 4-8 mm long.  Another member of the Pea family.

Field Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)

A probably legendary tale from medieval Germany tells of a knight walking with his lady by a river.  The knight bent to pick her a bunch of flowers but the weight of his armour caused him to fall in.  As he drowned he threw the flowers to his lady crying: ‘Vergisz mein nicht!’ – ‘forget-me-not’.  Since then this flower has been associated with true love.  I wonder why the knight was wearing armour when not fighting or jousting?  In 1802, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem based on the story of the knight called ‘The Keepsake’.  ‘That blue and bright-eyed flowerlet of the brook/Hope’s gentle gem, the sweet Forget-me-not!’.

Scentless Mayweed (Tripleurospermum inodorum)

Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)

This orchid grows very well in our garden.  The leaves are shiny and green with dark spots on them.

Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea)

Lesser Stitchwort (Stellaria graminea)

This plant grows mainly on acid soils – I found it in our lawn.

White Clover (Trifolium repens)

We have White and Red Clover in our garden.  I have posted photographs of the red before but not the more common white.  This is another plant with creeping stems and we have it in our lawn.  We tolerate it because the bees love it and it keeps the lawn looking green during a drought.

Common Field-speedwell (Veronica persica)

This plant is probably not a native but was introduced at some time in the distant past from Asia.  Its flowers are solitary on a long stalk and the lower petal is usually white.

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica) growing amongst water lilies

This is the commonest mint of all the species growing in the British Isles and has a very strong mint smell.

The next couple of plants I found on the same day as I found the Fox-and-cubs plant in Halesworth.

Black Horehound ((Ballota nigra)

Black Horehound (Ballota nigra)

There is a little alleyway that leads to the supermarket in Halesworth and on one side of it is some waste ground and that is where I found this plant.  Black Horehound smells awful if it is bruised and this has earned it a second name of ‘Stinking Roger’.  Poor old Roger!  It is quite an attractive plant to look at and its smell is its defence mechanism – to stop it being eaten by cattle.  It looks a little like Red Dead-nettle but is larger and coarser.  A third name for the plant is Madwort as it was used in the treatment of bites from mad dogs.  ‘A dressing prepared from the plant’s leaves, mixed with salt, was said to have an anti-spasmodic effect on the patient’ – to quote from the Reader’s Digest Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Britain.  It could also be used to treat coughs and colds but it was very powerful.  Nicholas Culpeper wrote that ‘it ought only to be administered to gross, phlegmatic people, not to thin, plethoric persons’.

Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris)

This was also on the waste ground though it can be seen on most road verges all through the summer.  The flowers are very pretty and the plant has long been used for food and medicine.  According to my Field Guide young mallow shoots were being eaten as a vegetable as early as the 8th century BC.  Cicero the orator complained that they gave him indigestion, the poet Martial used Mallow to get rid of hang-overs after orgies and the naturalist Pliny mixed the sap with water to give him day-long relief from aches and pains.  In the Middle Ages it was used as an anti-aphrodisiac, promoting calm, sober conduct.  Mallow leaves have been used to draw out wasp stings and the sap, which is quite viscous was made into poultices and soothing ointment.  The fruits of the Mallow are round flat capsules and some of the names for Mallow refer to them – ‘billy buttons’, ‘pancake plant’ and ‘cheese flower’.

Soft Rushes (Juncus effusus) in the ditch at the front of the house

Soft Rush (Juncus effusus) with flowers

These grow mainly on acid soils and on over-grazed land.  They live in our ditches and sometimes spread into the lawn.  The stems are a pretty pale yellow-green and are shiny and smooth.  The flowers are olive-green in colour.  The name ‘rush’ comes from a Germanic word meaning ‘to bind’ or ‘to plait’.  The spongy white pith in the stems used to be scraped out and made into wicks for candles.  I remember on wet camping holidays when young (and there were many of those) splitting rushes with my fingernail and trying to remove the pith in one piece without breaking it.  This was in the days before Nintendos – simple pleasures!