I managed to find a number of flowers to photograph in my garden this March.
We have areas in our garden that are left wild. This is one of the many violets that bloomed in March. I think this is an Early Dog Violet (Viola reichenbachiana )
Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna ). Not only are the flowers so shiny and buttercup-yellow but the leaves are interesting too. They are patterned and blotchy with different shades of green and then there is the strange black line down the centre of the leaf looking like it was drawn carelessly with a felt pen.
This is all that was left of some of my favourite tulips after a Muntjac deer came visiting. I wasn’t too happy about this. I can see a grape hyacinth bulb that was dug up as well.
I am very fond of Scillas and this was a patch of them as they were beginning to flower.
This is a pea – Lathyrus ‘Spring Beauty’ just as it too, began to flower.
Our Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera ) always looks good against a blue sky. Cherry Plum are the first of the flowering trees to have blossom in the spring.
Cherry Plum blossom
Pots of ‘Tete a Tete’ miniature daffodils and just a few pale blue crocus.
Sweet Violets (Viola odorata ) growing under the Crabapple tree.
The first of the garden daffodils to flower. It isn’t easy to see in this photo but the trumpets are a darker orange colour. I think they might be ‘Jetfire’ daffodils.
A large clump of Primroses ( Primula vulgaris) growing in the verge at the front of the house.
Primrose flower. This is a pin-eye flower, with the pinhead-like stigma in the centre of the flower and the stamens hidden below.
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.
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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.
At the beginning of September, I visited Redgrave and Lopham Fen with my friend Heather whom I hadn’t seen for over a year. It was a very muggy, clammy day so not ideal for walking any distance.
Redgrave and Lopham Fen – one of the many large ponds.
The sedge and reeds were very tall so we didn’t manage to see much open water and the pathways across the fen were quite narrow and enclosed at times. We got very hot and sticky and our feet were black with the peaty soil we walked on. However, we saw a few interesting plants and we managed to catch up with all our news!
Water at Redgrave and Lopham Fen
Redgrave and Lopham Fen is situated on the border between Suffolk and Norfolk and is owned and maintained by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. It is where the River Waveney and the Little Ouse River have their beginning. It is the largest remaining area of river valley fen in England. Its diverse habitat make it a very important site; saw sedge beds, open water, heathland, scrub and woodland can all be found here.
It is one of only three sites in the UK where the Fen Raft Spider can be found, though we didn’t manage to see it on our walk. Nineteen species of dragonfly, twenty-seven species of butterfly, twenty-six species of mammal, four species of amphibian, four species of reptile and ninety-six species of bird can be seen here. The beginning of September isn’t a great time of year to go looking for wildlife but we were pleased with what we did manage to see. It is a place I would like to return to one day.
Hips of the Dog Rose (Rosa canina)
Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria)
Surprisingly for a plant so widespread, this was the first time I had seen this flower since I was a little girl.
Purple Loosestrife
Purple Loosestrife and Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)
Greater Bird’s-foot Trefoil (Lotus pendunculatus)
Bird’s-foot Trefoil seedheads with Fen Bedstraw (Galium uliginosum)
These seedheads really do look a bit like birds feet!
Bulrush and Common Reed
Bulrush and Common Reed
Bulrush (Typha latifolia) is also known as Great Reedmace. Common Reed (Phragmites australis) stands in this country are a priority habitat because of their importance for wildlife as food and shelter.
Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis)
According to legend, the Devil was so angry with this plant because it was successful at curing all sorts of ailments that he bit off part of the root. The plant may have a short root but it still has curative powers! Nicholas Culpeper says the boiled root is good for snake-bite, swollen throats, wounds and the plague.
A meadow full of Devil’s-bit Scabious
Broad Buckler Fern (Dryopteris dilatata)
Broad Buckler Fern has 3-times pinnate leaves. Pinnate leaves are made up of leaflets, often in pairs, attached to a central stem and often with a terminal leaflet. 2-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets have their own leaflets. 3-times pinnate leaves = the leaflets of the leaflets have leaflets! Broad Buckler Fern has a long stalk which only has leaf branches for half its length.
Probably Common Earthball (Scleroderma citrinum)
Blackberries on Bramble (Rubus fruticosus agg.) There is an out-of-focus Speckled Wood butterfly sitting on a leaf just to the right of the top red berry
Haws of a Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
This might be Lesser Water Parsnip (Berula erecta)
I believe this is probably Amphibious Bistort (Persicaria amphibia)
It took me a while to identify this plant, mainly because it is extremely variable. It has two main forms – an aquatic form, which is described and illustrated in most ID guides, and a terrestrial form, which isn’t often described and hardly ever illustrated. The plant I saw is the terrestrial form.
This mole-hill shows how black the soil is
Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)
Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) with clusters of red berries
Heather kindly bought me a gift of two hardy cyclamen plants as our meeting was close to my birthday. I took a photo of them at the end of October where I had planted them in my garden.
White and purple hardy cyclamen. I am hoping they will spread out under the shrubs I have in this border and prevent the moss from returning as soon as my back is turned!
After we left the Suffolk Punch Trust we drove a couple of miles to Shingle Street on the coast.
Shingle Street beach
I wanted to visit this beach to look at the plants and flowers that live on the shingle. I had heard that it was a desolate spot but when we were there the place was teeming with kite-surfers!
Kite-surfing on a windy day
Kite-surfers on the beach
More kite-surfers. Here you can see the spit of shingle which curls round forming a calm lagoon.
The lagoon
The houses at Shingle Street
The Coastguard House
Shingle Street Part of the beach was fenced off to protect nesting birds, little terns and ringed plovers, and to protect this beach from damage by trampling.
The name ‘Bugloss’ derives from the Greek for ‘ox-tongued’ – the plant is quite rough and bristly to the touch. Parts of the plant are also thought to look like a snake – the fruits, which are said to resemble an adder’s head, used to be used to cure snake bites even though the plant is poisonous!
Lady’s Bedstraw (Galium verum)
According to my field guide, the flowers are honey-scented when fresh and smell of new-mown hay when dry. In days gone by, it was said to discourage fleas and so was added to straw mattresses especially for the beds of women about to give birth.
Sea Beet (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima )
Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare). Not an uncommon plant but I find it beautiful – and spiny!
Common Mallow (Malva sylvestris)
Sea Kale (Crambe maritima)
Yellow Horned Poppy (Glaucium flavum)
Yellow Horned Poppy (with a few pollen beetles!)
Rosebay Willowherb (Chamerion angustifolium)
Sea Pea (Lathyrus japonicus)
I was very pleased to see this plant still in flower! Usually I find it too late to admire the bright pink flowers. It is a nationally scarce plant but where it is happy it grows well and plentifully. My field guide tells me that the seed pods resemble garden pea-pods and were eaten (apparently) in Suffolk in times of famine (e.g. 1555). The pods are toxic in large quantities.
Sea pea
Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) These plants can grow as tall as 200 cm/ 6.5 ft. Prickly lettuce is a non-native and was first recorded here in 1632.
A Ladybird on Prickly Lettuce
I think this is a type of Mouse-ear, probably Common Mouse-ear (Cerastium fontanum)
This visit to the Shingle Street beach was a very pleasant end to an enjoyable day.
We had stormy weather like this all through last summer!
Many beautiful cloudscapes
Cloudy sunsets….
…and a lot of misty evenings!
ooOOoo
Richard grew Gazanias in pots last summer. They did very well especially towards the end of summer when the weather improved.
I discovered this rather chewed iris on the bank of the big pond in our garden. We don’t have any other irises like this. I wonder where it came from?
Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas)
I saw this damselfly on a lilypad on the big pond. I zoomed my camera as far as it would go and then cropped the shot which explains the poor quality of the photo. I needed to ID this damselfly which is a new one for our garden.
In 2014 I discovered a Bee Orchid in our garden and was very excited. I looked for it again in 2015 but it didn’t re-appear. Last summer I looked again at the place where I had found the orchid and was again disappointed. However, a few days later I found four bee orchid plants about 2 metres away from the original plant. I have already seen a few leaf rosettes this winter so I know that the orchids have survived.
Bee Orchid
Bee Orchid
This may be a Southern Cuckoo Bumblebee (Bombus vestalis) on white Allium
A Wasp Beetle (Clytus arietis)
Common Spotted-orchid (Dactylorhiza fuchsii)
When we moved into our house we discovered one of these orchids growing close to the house. I moved it to a safer place and since then it has done well and the plant has spread all over the garden. I often find seedlings in a tub or flower pot where they seem very happy and grow enormous like the one in the photo.
Hoverfly Syrphus ribesii on Escallonia ‘Apple Blossom’
Five-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii) on White Clover (Trifolium repens)
Five-spot Burnet on White Clover
House-leek in flower
Large Skipper butterfly (Ochlodes sylvanus) on Lavender – Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’.
Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica)
Black Medick (Medicago lupulina)
Hoverfly Volucella pellucens
The same hoverfly next to a tiny micro-moth
Branched Bur-reed (Sparganium erectum)
I have now caught up with all the photos taken in and near my garden last year. I have photographs from a few outings we did that I would like to share with you and then I can concentrate on this year!
Here is my music selection – Chris Rea’s ‘Heaven’ – one of my most favourite songs!
It was our 22nd wedding anniversary in June and instead of buying each other gifts we usually plan a day out that we will both enjoy. We chose to visit Strumpshaw Fen which is situated in the Broads.
Pond at Strumpshaw Fen
We had hoped to see all sorts of birds here and I had set my heart on finding a Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio machaon), as the Broads is the only place in the British Isles where they can be found.
Fenland
As was the case with many of our ventures last year, we didn’t have as successful a visit as we had hoped because the weather was miserable. It was cold, wet and windy – not a day for viewing rare butterflies or the Norfolk Hawker dragonfly or any of the birds we had hoped to see. However, we persevered with our walk round the reserve and saw a few things of interest.
A broad
Small fry – baby fish in the broad
Dogwood (Cornus sanguinea) in flower
A waterway in the fen
Yellow Water-lily (Nuphar lutea)
The flowers are much smaller than White Waterlily flowers being only 6 cm/2.5 ins across and are alcohol-scented apparently!
Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) with cygnets
Common Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) You can just see the pink flower-heads!
The River Yare
This might be Milk-parsley (Peucedanum palustre) the food plant of the Swallowtail caterpillar.
It might also be Hemlock! (Conium maculatum) They are both described as hairless biennials with purple-blotched stems. Hemlock’s stems are hollow and purple-blotched and Milk-parsley has ridged stems that are often blotched purple!
Ridged purple-blotched stems? I can’t decide!
More purple-blotched stems.
Hop (Humulus lupulus)
Dame’s-violet (Hesperis matronalis)
Guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus)
Common Meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum)
Southern Marsh-orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)
Ragged-robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)
Marsh Thistle (Cirsium palustre)
A meadow full of Yorkshire Fog (Holcus lanatus)
The flower-heads of this grass are red-tipped and gave the meadow a pink glow!
Part of our walk was along Tinker’s Lane
Tinker’s Lane – looking back the way we’d come
Tinker’s Lane – looking ahead. Elinor is the figure in the far distance
Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens)
Not a good photo of Common Twayblade (Neottia ovata) Though ‘common’ I had never seen this orchid before and was very pleased.
Common Twayblade
a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea) that refused to look my way!
Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus)
We enjoyed our walk round the fen and were pleased with the amount of interesting plants we had seen. I would like to return there this summer if possible to see the butterflies, dragonflies and birds we had intended seeing last year!
This, as promised in my previous post, is the first of my ‘highlight’ posts in which I will let you know some of the things we managed to do this year and will provide photos and links when and where necessary.
Just after Easter we went to the wedding of my dear friend Wendy and her husband John’s daughter Jennifer to her fiancé David. The wedding took place in the lovely church of St David in the village of Groes Faen in south Wales. We were delighted to be included in their family celebration, just as we had been when Jen’s older sister Vicky (my God-daughter) was married a few years ago. The reception was at the Pencoed House Estate, a beautiful manor house in lovely grounds. I was fortunate to be seated next to Wendy’s mother-in-law, Rene; she and her late husband Don had been so kind to me and Alice when my first marriage broke up. I was so sorry to hear that she died just a few weeks ago. I had been unable to take any photos at the wedding so was very pleased to receive a thank-you card from Jen and David which had photos from their wedding on it. I have scanned it and chosen one of the photos but it hasn’t come out very well.
ooOOoo
This next gallery of photos is just a reminder of what we have to look forward to in the spring!
Bluebell wood
Bluebell wood
Bluebell wood
I love bluebells (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) so I took a little detour on my way home from my mother’s house at the beginning of May so that I could see the flowers just outside the village of Withersdale Street.
ooOOoo
I have mentioned Pakenham Watermill before in my blog. It is where we go to buy the best wholemeal flour which I use to make bread.
Pakenham Watermill
The rear of the building. We visited on a perfect morning in May.
The mill with mill-pond
There are lots of House martin (Delichon urbica) nests under the eaves
Bird sculpture in the garden
The mill pond
ooOOoo
At about this time I visited Minsmere RSPB Reserve as I wanted to buy something from their shop. While I was there I thought I would quickly walk through the woods to see what I could see.
Bluebells again!
Bluebells
Blue bluebells and white bluebells!
Common vetch (Vicia sativa)
Common stork’s-bill (Erodium cicutarium)
I don’t remember ever having seen this flower before despite it being ‘common’. The seed-heads can be seen next to the flowers and their shape gives the plant it’s name.
Changing forget-me-not (Myosotis discolor)
The flowers are tiny and very difficult to photograph. When they first open they are yellow but soon change to blue. The plant especially likes to grow on sandy soil.
Shepherd’s-cress (Teesdalia nudicaulis)
This is another plant I don’t remember having noticed before, but that is not surprising because it is very low growing and not especially exciting to look at. You can see a wood-ant (10 mm long) towards the bottom right of the photo which gives you some idea of the size of the flowers which are about 2 mm across – two of the four petals of the flower are longer than the other two. The seeds are heart-shaped and a few can be seen at the top of the photo. The leaves in the basal rosette are lobed and can also be seen at the top-centre. Their shape reminds me of pasta servers.
Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa) creating red patches on the rising ground. Gorse (Ulex europaeus) can be seen flowering in the bushes on the sky-line.
Wavy bitter-cress (Cardamine flexuosa) – so-called because it’s stem is wavy rather than straight!
Rhododendron (Rhododendron ponticum)
Rhododendron has naturalised and become invasive in many places. It is unwelcome as it reduces biodiversity and is very difficult to eradicate because it produces new shoots from its roots. This link speaks more about the plant.
Bugloss (Anchusa arvensis)
This plant is very hairy and has interesting wavy-edged leaves. The flowers are a lovely intense blue colour.
ooOOoo
Elinor wasn’t able to join her art and design group on their trip to London in April so a few weeks later Richard and I took her there ourselves. We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and Elinor chose to study the exhibits in the cast works gallery and the sculpture galleries.
Trajan’s column – lower
Trajan’s column – upper
Someone took a plaster-cast of the whole of Trajan’s column! The column is 30 m / 98 ft tall (with the pedestal it is 35 m / 115 ft tall). Its diameter is 37 m / 12.1 ft. This cast is now invaluable to scholars because the original column has become very weathered and the figures cannot easily be studied.
I love this medieval carving from Germany! The details of the knight’s journey are exquisitely worked. There are trees, people and small creatures, buildings, a dragon and a princess to be rescued! It was difficult to get a decent photo because of the reflections off the glass case. I also forgot to make a note of the artist and couldn’t find the piece when I went on the museum’s website.
‘A Bishop Saint’ by Sir Alfred Gilbert 1899. This bishop’s gentle expression appealed to me very much.
‘The Virgin with the Laughing Child’ probably by Antonio Rossellino ca. 1465. I could look at this statuette for ever! It is so intimate and loving! Look at the way the mother is holding her little boy on her knee with his leg between her forefinger and middle finger, her other hand on his tummy and his hand on hers.
After leaving the museum we decided to walk to Hyde Park and relax there for a short time before catching our train home.
The Royal Albert Hall – a beautiful building and an excellent concert hall
Opposite the Royal Albert Hall is the Albert Memorial
ooOOoo
That’s it for the time being! I will leave you with my music choice, ‘This Is How It Feels’ by Inspiral Carpets, remembering Craig Gill (drums) who died on Tuesday 22 November 2016
This post is made up of photos of flowers, insects and other things of interest that I saw in my garden during the last couple of weeks of July and the first fortnight in August. We spent that time catching up with jobs around the house and doing a lot of gardening as the weather was quite good.
It has not been a good year for insects here; an extremely bad one for butterflies in fact, possibly due to the cool, wet spring and early summer we had. The flowers and plants had a slow start but once the warm weather arrived in mid July they soon caught up.
A male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)
We still had plenty of these small dragonflies in our garden until recently but in July they had just started flying. They don’t just fly near water but find perches all over the garden from which they ‘dart’ to catch passing prey. In this photo the dragonfly is on the top of a cane in my flower-border and was happy to let me get very close to him. Ruddy Darters are the only red dragonflies with totally black legs – they also have a small patch of yellow at the base of the wings. There are black lines on the upper side of the second- and third-to last segments of the abdomen. The upper half of the eyes are red-brown and the lower half are green. The frons (the front of the ‘face’) is red.
Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
I bought this herb late last summer; it survived the winter very well and has flowered beautifully this year. It is very popular with the bees and smells good too.
Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ (Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla var. flavescens)
I grew Swiss Chard from seed this year for the first time, mainly because my mother likes it and hasn’t been able to get it for a few of years. I gave her a few plants and then put some plants into a couple of gaps in my flower-border. They look beautiful, especially with the sun shining through the colourful stems. I can’t say the vegetable when eaten has been very popular. The leaves are like spinach, quickly reducing in size and becoming soft; the stems which I put into the hot water a minute or so before the leaves, have a lovely texture and a very mild taste. They can be steamed successfully too. I think it is the mildness that doesn’t appeal – or perhaps the spinach-like leaves. We love greens in this family and get through large amounts of cabbage, spring-greens, brussels sprouts and broccoli, all of which have fairly powerful flavours. Perhaps Swiss Chard is too refined for us?
A poor photo of an Essex Skipper butterfly (Thymelicus lineola) sitting on a buttercup flower.
I include this just to prove to myself that we did get a number of skippers in the garden in the summer. The Essex Skipper is very similar to the Small Skipper but the antennal tip instead of being golden is black underneath, which can just be seen in my photo.
A Greengage (Prunus domestica ssp. italica var. Claudiana)
We bought a young Greengage tree nearly three years ago and this year we got two fruits on it. We didn’t manage to eat either of them because one or other of our animal, bird or insect visitors got there first.
A Comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album)
The name ‘Comma’ refers to a white comma mark on the underside of the wings.
This has got everywhere in the garden this year! I have found it growing in amongst the herbs, up through the Pyracantha and it has taken over the two Cotoneasters that grow next to our gas-tank. (We are not on mains gas here so have a large butane gas tank near the house). Bittersweet berries are beautiful and are at their most attractive at this stage when some are still green and they are plump and shiny.
Another poor photograph showing what I believe to be a female Blue-tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegans)
Another photo that is proof to me that we had these damselflies flying round the pond this summer.
Female Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)
Male Gatekeepers are territorial and patrol an area of hedgerow often in corners of fields or near gates trying to deter other insects from entering their domains. The males are smaller and a brighter orange than the females and have a dark patch of scent glands on the fore-wing.
Ripe Wheat (Triticum spp.)
I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the wheat in the field behind our house just before it was harvested this year.
Peacock butterfly (Inachis io)
This slightly battered Peacock was sunning itself on the path. They are very hairy-bodied insects and the colours and markings on the wings are beautiful. I noticed for the first time the lovely tiger-stripe yellow and black ‘shoulders’ on the fore-wing.
Perennial Sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis) This one I discovered growing next to our compost bin.
Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis)
The flowers this year are only lightly marked with pink. They are usually much brighter.
We are lucky (?) to have both Field Bindweed, as in the former photo, and Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) as here, in our garden. This one was being visited by a bumble bee.
Our young Rowan or Mountain Ash tree (Sorbus aucuparia) had many flowers in the early summer and produced some berries this year. The berries in the photo are not quite ripe yet. They were eaten by something very quickly once they were red and ripe.
Pheasant Berry (Leycesteria formosa)
I have a pale-leaved Pheasant Berry bush and it has done very well this year, having had enough rain-water at the beginning of the season. The birds usually enjoy the berries but I’m not sure if the wasps will have left them any!
Lilium longiflorum
The white Longiflorum lilies did a little better this year. I still had some trouble with non-native Red Lily Beetles but the cool wet June meant the flowers were taller and stronger and the beetles didn’t appear until later in the season when the weather improved. I was as vigilant as I could be, going out checking for beetles at least twice a day and squashing them when I found them. Unfortunately, nothing could be done while I was away from home so when I returned I soon discovered the horrible grubs eating the plants. I removed as many as I could and discovered that spraying them regularly with soap was very effective.
Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccineus) ‘Celebration’
I grew runner beans this year and gave my mother six plants and planted the rest in a gap in my flower border. They grew up through a laburnum tree and did quite well. I started them fairly late so they didn’t begin flowering til after mid-summer but the beans develop very quickly and these ones are so sweet and hardly have any ‘strings’. I love the orange flowers.
The beans with a Jacob’s Ladder (Polemonium caeruleum) flower-spike and a bumble bee flying towards the Jacob’s Ladder.
The Astrantia, also known as Masterwort, has done well this year.
A male Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum)
This photo of my lilies (Lilium ‘Stargazer’) was taken well after sunset and without a flash.
I wanted to see if there was enough ambient light to take a successful photo of these luminous lilies.
I then took this photo of a Gladiolus next to the greenhouse
On a church cleaning visit to our church at Rumburgh I noticed this Black Spleenwort (Asplenium adiantum-nigra) growing on the wall.
This plant is mainly found in the west of the country so I was surprised to see it here, almost as far east as one can get. It loves alkaline soil and here it is growing in the mortar. A month later and it had gone – removed I presume, in case it caused yet more damage to our poor crumbling church building.
Just below the spleenwort was this patch of Black Bryony (Tamus communis)
A sunset seen from the back of the house.
My music selection today is ‘The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba’ by Handel.
We arrived back home last Wednesday after spending eight days in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). It was probably the hottest day of the year so far and we spent it travelling by train up from Triberg, Germany to Ebbsfleet in Kent (England) where we had left our car. We set off from the hotel at 6.30 am European time and got home just after 7.00 pm British time (one hour behind Europe). The car thermometer said it was 32C (89.5F) when we set off from Kent and it peaked at 34C (93F) near the tunnel at the Dartford Crossing (under the Thames). As we drove home up through Essex and Suffolk we watched large black clouds to the west edging ever nearer and we hoped we’d be able to get home before the storm got to us. We did. It was still 32C as we unpacked the car, opened all the windows and doors in the house and wandered round the garden for a while looking at the long grass and the drooping plants. While I put the kettle on and made a cup of tea Richard telephoned the Chinese restaurant in Halesworth and ordered a take-away meal. He was just about to set off when the storm broke. It was the most violent one I’ve seen for many years with continuous thunder and bolts of lightening coming down vertically and travelling horizontally across the sky. The rain was very heavy indeed. Elinor and I sat on the stairs together as she gets quite frightened during thunderstorms and Richard went off to collect our evening meal. The storm gradually abated and the sky cleared but still Richard hadn’t come back and I began to worry about him. I found his phone which he had left behind so I couldn’t get in touch to find out where he was. I was considering getting in the car and going to look for him when I was relieved to see him driving up to the house. He had had a hair-raising journey and when he had got to Halesworth he found that the Chinese restaurant had a power-cut and couldn’t give us a meal. They had tried to phone him on his mobile to let him know, but of course he had left it at home. The town’s Thoroughfare was flooded with a foot of water and people were out trying to sweep the water away from the shop doors. Water was coming up through the drains and the town river was in full spate. Richard didn’t lose his head and knew he had a mission to accomplish so went to the other Chinese restaurant at the top of the town which hadn’t lost it’s power and ordered our meal from them instead.
When the rain stopped I went outside to enjoy the fresh, cooler air and took some photographs of the strange clouds.
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The following day I resumed my dutiful-daughter job and took Mum out to do her shopping. We had bought double her usual amount of shopping just before we’d gone away and we had made sure she had enough of her medication to last as well. While we were on our holiday she had been taken to church by my brother on the Sunday and he had cooked lunch for her at his house, so she had plenty to tell me.
When I got home again I got on with the washing and started to tidy the garden. Richard and I called in to see our next-door-neighbours who had been kind enough to water the plants in the greenhouse and to put our rubbish bins out for collection while we were away. We are very fortunate to have such thoughtful and generous neighbours.
The next day I continued with house and garden work.
Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis ssp.arvensis) found behind the greenhouse
Marsh Woundwort (Stachys palustris) found growing on the bank of the big pond.
I think this may be a male Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum) though it could be a male Ruddy Darter (Sympetrum sanguineum)
A Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) in flower near the big pond
A rather old and tired Ringlet butterfly (Aphantopus hyperantus)
Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) in flower in the area between our garden and the field at the back of the house.
I believe this may be a female Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum)
Our Variegated Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa variegatum) in flower
Sweet Chestnut flowers
I walked down the lane with Elinor to post birthday cards to my niece Natalie (my brother’s daughter) who had her 31st birthday on the 23rd of July and cards to Alice my elder daughter who had her 31st birthday on the 24th of July. Natalie is exactly 23 hours older than Alice.
This is a teneral, or newly emerged dragonfly as you can see by the pale colouring and very shiny wings. I don’t know which dragonfly it is, unfortunately. It is perched on a Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) growing in the ditch at the side of the lane.
The new pond at the side of the lane which was dug during the winter.
Richard spoke to the man who lives on the opposite side of the lane to the pond and who was responsible for digging it. Apparently, many years ago there was a pond there which was wide enough and deep enough to enable the horses to be led to drink while still attached to their carts. It was filled in when horses were no longer needed on the farm but it has now been re-instated and I am very pleased. The pond is already full of interesting plants and insects which have found their way there on their own.
Our lane. I am standing next to the pond (on my left) and looking back in the direction from which we had come.
Looking over the hedge into the garden of Church Farm I noticed this piece of wall covered in ivy. I wonder if it is part of the old church of St Nicholas demolished many hundreds of years ago.
Lots of unripe Lords and Ladies berries (Arum maculatum)
A field full of Field or Broad Beans.
Another pond at the side of the lane. This one has become rather overgrown. It has fish in it and I once saw a couple sitting at the side of the road with rods trying to catch fish.
View across the fields towards All Saints church which can just be seen to the right of centre on the horizon. It is slightly obscured by a thistle flower!
Common Knapweed (Centaurea nigra)
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Wild flowers at the side of the lane.
Agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria)
Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)
Meadowsweet has a beautiful almond-blossom-like fragrance.
A poor photo of a male Gatekeeper butterfly (Pyronia tithonus)
These were all the things I saw at the side of the lane on a short 20 minute walk to post cards.
Here now is my musical choice – the Petite Symphonie in B flat for nine wind instruments by Charles Gounod, composed in 1888. It lasts about 20 minutes and is of four movements. I love the lyricism of French 19th century music and I like this recording of the piece very much. It is a piece of music I used to play and it brings back such good memories to me when I hear it.
I have taken a number of photographs over the last few weeks but haven’t had the time to write any posts. Here are a few of the better pictures from April and earlier.
Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)
Back in January I was driving home from shopping when I saw this small group of five Red Deer making their way across a field towards the road. I had to slow down and then stop because I could see that they were not only made nervous by my car but their usual path was blocked by a fire someone had lit to get rid of brushwood. They eventually managed to cross the lane a little further along and then carried on their way. I took a photo of them through the car window and this is the result – heavily cropped. I had thought that I had missed them and it was only when I eventually looked carefully at the shot on my computer a few weeks ago I realised that they were there!
The Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) family wandering through the garden at the beginning of April.
This is such an untidy photo with the recycling bin out by the roadside and my former car in the way too. This is another photo taken through glass (the kitchen window this time – you can see a reflection in the bottom left corner of the picture). We haven’t seen the pheasants for a while now so I presume the females are busy on their nests.
We had a storm with heavy rain and then the sun came out. It all looked so bright and fresh, so I stood at the front door and took three photos, to the left, straight ahead and to the right.
A few days later I stood at the end of the drive and took this photo of the ditch that runs along the edge of the garden. We have daffodils growing all along its length. The lane runs parallel with the front of our property. You can also see my new car in this picture.
Pussy Willow / Goat Willow (Salix caprea)
Goat Willow in flower
Cowslips (Primula veris)
A stormy sky. A photo of our house (and the house next door) taken standing next to our big pond and looking across the corner of the field.
The summerhouse
A Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) looking for ants in the lawn
I was quite pleased with this photo as it showed all the different colours of its feathers, even the black and white spotted feathers under the wings. This is a female adult as the moustachial feathers are all black. The male has a crimson centre to the stripe.
A male Blackbird (Turdus merula) was also on the lawn looking for food.
White Dead-nettle (Lamium album)
Wild Cherry blossom (Prunus avium)
The first Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) flower in our garden this spring
There is nothing quite like the scent of Bluebells. They are wild hyacinths but don’t have the cloying scent of the garden variety. There is a sweet freshness that lifts the spirits and is irrevocably linked, to my mind, with birdsong, sunshine after rain and hope.
Greengage blossom (Prunus domestica ssp. italica). I hope we have some fruit this year.
Some of the Cowslips in our garden are orange and red.
Pendunculate / English Oak (Quercus robur). New leaves and flowers (catkins) appear at the same time.
Marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris). I found it impossible to photograph this bright yellow flower well.
More Marsh-marigold
New Horse-chestnut leaves and flower buds (Aesculus hippocastanum)
Beautiful new English Elm leaves (Ulmus procera). We have a number of small Elm trees in our garden. Sadly they will only live for a few years before they succumb to Dutch Elm disease.
Lords and Ladies / Jack-in-the-pulpit / Cuckoo pint (Arum maculatum). This plant has many names. Its arrowhead-shaped leaves are often dark spotted.
Snowy Mespil (Amelanchier canadensis) blossom
Blackthorn blossom (Prunus spinosa). This poor photo is the only image of this year’s blossom I managed to get.
A rainbow behind the trees
All these photos were taken in April and in my garden, except the first one.
I find I haven’t made a music selection for a while so this post’s choice is ‘Let’s Work Together’ by Canned Heat. Excellent lyrics, great tune and the best tempo ever!
