Summer 2015

3rd June 2015

The Elder is showing its platters of white, the magnificent coppiced chestnuts are filling out the canopy, the nettles are looking ferocious, the bramble is flowering, the hawthorn blossom is blown away, and the wild garlic is now completely gone to seed.

10th June 2015

The vibrant Early Purple Spotted Orchid has long given up its glory and now the smaller and more delicate Common Spotted Orchid is out; Wood Speedwell, a much softer blue; the red spikey seed heads of the Wood Avens; Forget-me-nots pulling off simultaneous blue and pink; Yellow Flag Iris in the pond; and Hedge Woundwort, starting off as tiny stars, then erupting in to angry mauve ghost-monsters…

22nd June 2015

Common Figwort is draped across the pathway, long square stems and small dark red flowers (and is that a little person in the middle, cheering for solidarity?); the Hedge Woundwort is out in full, getting smelly by now; and it would seem fitting nomenclature-wise if the yellow one was St John’s Wort, but it might be Tutsan. Tiny white beauties from the Elder, Rodesier Dogwood and an (as yet) unidentified waif. And some brand new shiney fungi that’s popped up after the June showers.

6th July 2015

The delicate mauve of Self-heal; tiny tiny white Enchanter’s Nightshade; Common Cow Wheat still going well; Bluebell pods revealing seeds; Blackcurrant (not yet black); empty stars of Hedge Woundwort; and some delicate soft new holly.

14th August 2015

The purple Thistle and the pink Herb Robert; the white flowers and green seeds of Anthriscus sylvestris (aka Cow Parsley or Queens Anne’s Lace); Elderberries, green, just starting; a single Sloe; red berries on the Arum maculatum (aka Lords and Ladies, Cuckoo-pint, Adder’s root and many other monikers); and the occasional fungi.

28th August 2015

Berries, buddleia and fungi.

Spring 2015

Autumn 2015