Around my acres

The sunshine has really brought the wild flowers out on our own little plot here. The paddock, rather than the top field, is looking an absolute picture, though I have a mass of young Primrose plants clustering under a hawthorn bush up on the top field line, in a little triangle of land which is fenced off from the main field.

I looked across the paddock on Wednesday and saw a haze of blue. Speedwells, but I have been pondering exactly which sort. I believed they were just the Common Field Speedwell, but having looked very closely at Marjorie Blamey (The Illustrated Flora of Britain and Northern Europe), I think they are 95% positive the Slender Speedwell because of the petal colouring and the mostly opposite pairs of leaves. Double click to enlarge the photos.

Close-up of Marsh Marigolds (Kingcups) growing around my wildlife pond in the garden. More about them tomorrow. The tadpoles by the way, are growing well, and now have their own halo of bubbles above them where they are whipping up a storm by wriggling so much en masse . . .

This little corner of the paddock, leading to what my daughters always called TheFairy Dell when they were younger, has a wonderful display fo Celendines on the bank.

And a few more for luck, growing on the slope of what was the Mill Pond.

Here are the Speedwells - a blue-grey blush from the distance.

Happy little faces closer to.

And positively radiant in close-up.