Some more photos from a walk I took yesterday. How I stayed awake I don't know, as I could NOT sleep the previous night.
A harbinger of summer, let alone spring. These are the leaves of Rosebay Willow Herb (or Fireweed as it is known in America and Canada). It has tall spikes of pretty fuschia pink flowers in summer.
Wind Anemones we call these, though their proper name is Wood Anemones.
Maths in action! This thistle is so beautifully symetrical.
I have heard these Canada Geese honking as they fly overhead up our valley. These have decided to have a few night's B&B on Next Door's pond, before heading further south.
This plant always brings great plesure - it is the Wild Columbine (Aquilegia). We used to have 14 plnts growing along our top hedgerow, but sadly farm machinery and the council men chucking heaps of salt and grit have done for all but five of them, but I have just spotted one growing further along the bank, so I am hopeful of 6 this year. They come in some stunning dark reds, purples and blues as well as white and the very palest of pinks (which is what mine are). There was half an acre of them in a Chapel graveyard near us and they were stunning - made me think it was such a beautiful place to be buried. Then the Chapel Elders or whoever, decided they would "tidy" up the graveyard and chopped them all down before they could set seed . . .
The easily-identified Foxglove-to-be.
The Scarlet Elf Cap fungus on rotton wood. It is quite prolific in this area and adds a splash of colour in the woods where I was walking yesterday.
A close up of the largest Elf Cap, against the bed of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage.
Along the top of the Chapel wall, all sorts of little plants have taken hold. Here a wild strawberry is flowering.
This is Bistort, which will have a pale pink flower head between May and August. In the North, a pudding is made (Ledger Pudding) at Easter time - a number of edible wild plants with hard boiled eggs, the most important of the plants being the Bistort.
You can see a Fox (probably other animals too) has been using this part of the bank as his personal pathway down to the road. Usually you will find the onward path on the hedge opposite, but not on this occasion. You can often tell if it is a Fox which is using it by the sharp tang of Fox. There are some rabbit exit holes along the top of this bank, so I think he is probably hopeful of catching something unawares.
A badger sett in woodland half a mile from my house. One of several, with huge mounds of excavated clay outside.
A harbinger of summer, let alone spring. These are the leaves of Rosebay Willow Herb (or Fireweed as it is known in America and Canada). It has tall spikes of pretty fuschia pink flowers in summer.
Wind Anemones we call these, though their proper name is Wood Anemones.
Maths in action! This thistle is so beautifully symetrical.
I have heard these Canada Geese honking as they fly overhead up our valley. These have decided to have a few night's B&B on Next Door's pond, before heading further south.
This plant always brings great plesure - it is the Wild Columbine (Aquilegia). We used to have 14 plnts growing along our top hedgerow, but sadly farm machinery and the council men chucking heaps of salt and grit have done for all but five of them, but I have just spotted one growing further along the bank, so I am hopeful of 6 this year. They come in some stunning dark reds, purples and blues as well as white and the very palest of pinks (which is what mine are). There was half an acre of them in a Chapel graveyard near us and they were stunning - made me think it was such a beautiful place to be buried. Then the Chapel Elders or whoever, decided they would "tidy" up the graveyard and chopped them all down before they could set seed . . .
The easily-identified Foxglove-to-be.
The Scarlet Elf Cap fungus on rotton wood. It is quite prolific in this area and adds a splash of colour in the woods where I was walking yesterday.
A close up of the largest Elf Cap, against the bed of Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage.
Along the top of the Chapel wall, all sorts of little plants have taken hold. Here a wild strawberry is flowering.
This is Bistort, which will have a pale pink flower head between May and August. In the North, a pudding is made (Ledger Pudding) at Easter time - a number of edible wild plants with hard boiled eggs, the most important of the plants being the Bistort.
You can see a Fox (probably other animals too) has been using this part of the bank as his personal pathway down to the road. Usually you will find the onward path on the hedge opposite, but not on this occasion. You can often tell if it is a Fox which is using it by the sharp tang of Fox. There are some rabbit exit holes along the top of this bank, so I think he is probably hopeful of catching something unawares.
A badger sett in woodland half a mile from my house. One of several, with huge mounds of excavated clay outside.
