Cam Valley Rambles

Halloween and Rain

2011-11-03T06:47:00.000-07:00

My mother was born on halloween so I always like to make a special day of it - it is in any case a magical time! The year is dying, and those who have gone before are said to be nearer to us at this time - Hi Mum, I miss you.

Missed buying the pumpkin this year as well though, so I had to make do with a butternut squash - then I stuffed and roasted it the next night. He looked more entrancing glowing in the dark, but was mighty tasty with bacon and mushrooms oozing out of his eyes, nose and wibbly mouth.

The village children looked fab in their costumes, and are probably too well-behaved to do some of the awful tricks I have heard about, but I handed out sweets anyway. The treat is they taste nice, the trick is they rot your teeth - enjoy!

Two days later we have high winds and torrential rain forecast, so I headed out early this morning while it was still dry. Our little Cam river is already pretty high, after record lows just a few weeks ago, so it looks like we might get some flooding if the forecast is right - ours is a watery little valley and flooding is very frequent.

Because it is morning, everyone is having their breakfast, including this little chap, dining off a late hogweed flower.

In the long meadow the ponies are munching away too, and because I am a bit scared of big animals I move up to the edge of the field to skirt round them - and find this beautiful late yarrow plant - pink tinged perfection.

Yarrow

It's been a rich year for berries, and it's good to see that there are still plenty around for the redwings and fieldfares when they arrive - so if the promised Siberian weather arrives (always two weeks after the east coast of America, and they have had up to 32 inches) they won't go hungry.

Rosehips

Hawthorn Berries

Last nights rain is still in evidence as I trudge through the mud in my wellies, through the new wood in it's yellow and orange autumn glory.

Beech

The mud is strewn with their discarded leaves - a beautiful decaying tapestry. And there is someone else having their breakfast!

The alder trees are wearing their cones alongside next years buds, and the elder has it's usual adornment of jelly ears - I give them a little squeeze for pleasure. Not sure I'd want to eat them like the Chinese though.

Jelly ears on Elder

Alder

I gather some burdock seedheads to stick round my lampshade at home (they look so jolly!), trying to make sure I avoid the ones full of hibernating ladybirds - only one in this bed but some have three or four crammed in together. And the little one said "Roll over'...

Burdock and Ladybird

Walking through Little Scotland towards Splott Hill and home I find a dead crow, so I pick it up by it's lovely chunky leg with an ivy leaf and take it up onto the bank. Find a place to lay it on the earth then cover it with leaves, a hogweed seedhead and a last Himalayan Balsam flower. Rest in peace crow, and enjoy your new weightless flight. I love crows!

Joy is a butterfly
Fluttering low over the earth,
   But sorrow is a bird
With big, strong, black wings.
   They lift you high above life
Flowing below in sunlight and growth.
   The bird of sorrow flies high
To where the angels of grief keep watch
   Over death's lair.

Edith Södergran (1892 - 1923)

Birthday Ramble

2011-07-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

Tiggy looking out

This entry is dedicated to Tiggy, our beautiful boy cat, who died last month - we miss him so much! And to everyone who has lost cherished companions, big or small, two or four-legged.

Another year has gone, and my blogging times get fewer and fewer! Life fills up again and again, and time for reflection and celebration must be hoarded.

No work at the printers today - and it’s a beautiful sunny day, lucky me!

Off to the fields with my camera - hoping to see butterflies and find some Melilot in the Magic Kingdom. There was swathes of it there last year, but since the farmer has razed the ground for his cattle I don’t know what I will find. Melilot is rich in coumarins and when dried gives off a lovely sweet smell (like grass and Woodruff) - I want to tincture some to see if I can use it in my perfumes.

Found a big patch of Marsh Thistle by the side of the road - it’s very distinctive in its straggly habit, with spines down it’s long stems, and beautiful purple anthers. Very popular with hungry insects.

Marsh Thistle

First butterfly I met was a Speckled Wood, sunning itself on a hop plant - it must have been a bit chilly ‘cause it let me get quite close.

Speckled Wood - caught on the hop!

The meadowsweet is turning to seed now, but there is still some frothy blossom left in places - one day I will try and capture that scent, it is so lovely. It is a great herb for helping with poorly stomachs and achey joints, and like a lot of the ‘rheumaticky’ herbs it likes to grow near water - like curing like for joints that ache in damp weather.

Meadowsweet

Walking alongside the Cam on the way to the meadow I see signs that the summer is coming to a close - already!

Willow on Burdock

Yellowing leaves and seeds and berries forming. Just when the schools break for the summer holidays it’s really almost autumn in the round of the year - harvest and food gathering time. The squirrels are already plundering the hazels for their nuts, even though they’re not really ripe just yet - when you walk along and your feet crunch on neatly opened shells you can tell what month it is!

Self-heal grows here too - this one has a visitor that I can’t identify yet - but I see this fly quite often - big red eyes and alarming mouthparts put it firmly in the creepy section of creepy-crawlies! We all have our part to play though, and I’m sure his is very important - looks aren’t everything...

Self-Heal and mystery fly

Do you know your snails? I certainly didn’t, so it was a useful exercise to look up these chappies - turns out they might be the same species, even though one is banded and the other isn’t - the difference is in the colour of the lip of the shell. Cepaea hortensis has a white lip and Cepaea nemoralis has a brown lip. These are both white-lipped!

Banded snail - Cepaea hortensis

Here is an old friend, the green-veined white butterfly, dining off some Wild Basil. Wild Basil sounds tasty but alas doesn’t taste of basil - a bit pungent and Thymey. I wouldn’t put it in my pasta sauce...

Green-veined White on Wild Basil

Into the Meadow which the farmer has mowed and cleared, leaving a small strip by the top hedge. There are patches of Agrimony and lots of Rough Chervil, interwoven with beautiful candy-striped Field Bindweed.

Field Bindweed

Soldier Beetles are pretty common in these parts, and I often see them on the lacy umbrella plants - when I looked them up in my book it said they ‘breed on the Umbelliferae’. Sure enough here are a couple on a Rough Chervil plant!

Soldier Beetles on Rough Chervil

More butterflies to add to my count on this walk - a Small Skipper, a Small Tortoiseshell, a Gatekeeper, a Meadow Brown, Small Copper and a Peacock! Along with the Cabbage Whites, and the Red Admirals on the blooming Buddleias, that makes ten kinds today. Not a bad count, but no sign of any Commas or Small Blues.

Small Skipper

Small Tortoiseshell

Gatekeeper

Small Copper on Rough Chervil

Small Copper on Ragwort

Meadow Brown and
Large Garden Bumble Bee
on Knapweed

Peacock

Walked up the steep path to the Magic Kingdom, and luckily this end of it has not been flattened, although there are signs of cow activity, so I have to watch out for ankle turning.

The Melilot was not nearly as lush and prolific as last year, but there was still plenty to enable me to gather some for my scent experiment.

Melilot

There is lots of Wild Clematis (Traveller’s Joy or Old Man’s Beard) and Wild Carrot here, along with other plants not so common in the fields -maybe the fact that this was the site of the old railway has made it a different environment. It is fascinating to see how different soils and micro-climates attract different plants - for me that is one of the joys of exploring different places.

Wild Clematis blossom

Wild Carrot

Back down through the meadow, and a huge stand of Himalayan Balsam sent it’s sweet smell and the sound of a hundred humming bees to waylay me. I know it’s an invasive plant and must be controlled for the sake of our natives, but I do find it beautiful, and the bees are at their busiest.

Bee and Himalayan Balsam

As I walked through the new wood another sound drew my attention - an equally busy-sounding one. ‘Cheerip, chip chip chip, cheerip, chip chip chip’. The same notes coming from a dozen beaks at different times, resulting in a kind of miniature barber-shop choir cacophony. I looked up into a willow tree, and it was alive with a band of long-tailed tits in a feast of bug-picking off the leaves and branches. They are such cheery and industrious birds, and although they travel together they don’t seem to bicker like the sparrows.

Long-Tailed Tits in Willow

The Red Campion is seeding now - the seed cases reminding me of fairy goblets, but instead of Rosehip wine they hold dozens of seeds. I expect the fairies wait for the seeds to drop before they replenish their goblet cupboards.

Red Campion seed heads

Back up the hill to home, and a welcome cup of tea. The swallows are gathering on the wires, they will soon be gone for another year.

It’s summer still, but something is round the corner...

The swallows wheel about the sky,

Trying their wings for overseas;

The thistledown goes floating by;

At midnight shine the Pleiades;

And there are mushrooms in the dawn,

And blackberries all wet with mist;

Ripe chestnuts dropping on the lawn;

Red apples that the sun has kissed.

The beech is touched with fire o'erhead,

Largess of gold the lime down flings,

Cool asters crowd the garden bed,

And over all the robin sings.

Teresa Hooley

Dandelion Days

2011-04-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

This spring has been extraordinary. Day after day of sunshine and warmth, like the Spring of our imagination, but which in reality never happens- until now. It is really beautiful, but also a bit sinister, because we have had no rain to speak of for weeks now.

I set off to visit Badger Oak and the Magic Kingdom today, to see what was stirring now that the year is in full flow. Walking down Wick Lane to the Poplar Walk it's all looking a bit dry - more like later in the summer. The moss on the bridge top has gone dry and brown.

Lombardy Poplars

I was determined to try and get a picture of an Orange Tip butterfly today - there has been one (or more) fluttering through the garden for a while now. I only saw my first one last year, and they are so lovely. It wasn't long before one fluttered by, and I stood stock still hoping it would settle. No such luck though, so I walked on. There are plenty of bumble bees around at the moment, and I have seen a couple of BeeFlies too, with their funny hovering and darting motion - they remind me of mechanical 'spy-bots' in science-fiction films.

Elm

I rounded the corner and saw to my dismay that the sweet little elm tree with the incredibly corky trunk had been damaged - presumably by the wind. One of it's limbs has been torn off and is hanging down - it looks sore!

Still held on by a thread though, so it wouldn't surprise me if it kept on growing through this connection, if the farmer doesn't come along and tidy it up.

Walked up past the doctors and into the Magic Kingdom.......!!!!!

Big shock - magic no more. The farmer obviously has other plans for it than to delight the souls of ex-townie locals. Rumour has it that this has been done before, so I shall keep visiting to see how nature reasserts herself. It doesn't extend quite all the way along yet, and I am hoping that the patch of Melilot further down will grow again this year. I want to try and experiment with it to get the smell of coumarin for my perfume making. If that fails I might have a go with grass!

I leave the superhighway and walk across the domed meadow - a mass of dandelions! They are such a wonderful flower, I'm sure if they weren't so common and vigorous we'd be growing and treasuring them in our gardens.

Onwards to climb the hill to Badger Oak. I have to step carefully as the cattle use this field and it's very bumpy - I am watching my step when almost at my feet a rabbit leaps up and bounds off down the slope - big surprise for us both. He has gone to ground in the patch of trees to the left so I move towards them - one of them always yields some good tufts of fallen oakmoss - another great perfume ingredient. You can see the bunches clinging to the branches.

Oakmoss

Oakmoss is a kind of lichen, a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an alga - it has a very distinctive smell, with more than a little of the sea about it. I love it, and make a tincture as a fixative and lovely earthy basenote in my perfumes. It is in a lot of traditional conventional perfumes too, but has been largely done away with by the powers that be, as it can be an irritant for some people. Bonkers european laws - very irritating!

One of the trees has a hole at the base of it, makes me think of fairy folk or Badgers place in Wind in the Willows, but no little door with brass knocker, alas.

I straighten up from my gleanings, look down the slope and there is Peter Rabbit, sitting very still for his portrait. Wish I had a better lens...

Badger Oak is still there, thank goodness - no doubt trees like him are protected, or maybe not - that would be interesting to find out.

Lots of nettles around him, so make a mental note to come back and harvest, while they're still fairly young. The leaves on the oak are just starting to come out, and they look very delicate against it's massive limbs and fantastically fissured bark.

Further on I find a massive entrance hole to the badger den, but it doesn't look like it's being used, and the earth over the whole sett looks disturbed - more interference?

Time to head back home, through a field that is a mass of Shepherds Purse. It is a timely gift from nature for a friend who is losing too much blood - Shepherds Purse is great for reducing the flow, and tradition says that it is best fresh - I stuff some in my pocket.

Through the kissing gate, and I can see my village in the distance - across the Fossil Field (none to be looked for today with this burgeoning crop) and down through the new copse onto Stoneage Lane.

As I emerge from the trees I see a movement, and a butterfly settles onto a dandelion. I focus in and it's a brimstone, the first one I've seen this year - cheers, my dear!

Brimstone Butterfly

The waste land here is growing some very fine comfrey and a big patch of white deadnettle - another useful female herb.

White deadnettle

Comfrey

Red Campion

Through the New Wood (very actively managed this year by the new owners) and into little Scotland, where I found some Red campion and Cuckoo Flower, right on cue as April flowers - and everything being well-supported by the ever-striving-upwards cleavers!

Cuckoo flower

And as for the Orange Tips - every where I went one would appear suddenly from behind me, whizz by me and off - perpetual motion. No chance for a picture, but the sight was a lovely one.

Autumn Equinox and Harvest Moon!

2010-09-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

To have these two come together on the same day is quite rare I think, and by happy chance I was not called to work today, so I decided to go for a ramble and see what the (now official!) autumn had in store.
I still haven't figured out how to organise the photos how I want them on the blog, so my walk is represented backwards pictorially!
It has been a fantastic year for fruit, sloes in particular, and the hedgerows are rich too with hips and haws, blackberries, guelder fruits and elderberries - an abundance of red and purple that is so good for us, particularly our blood vessels and immune systems. I've been busy making elderberry and hawthorn and rosehip syrups, and sloe gin and damson vodka - purely for medicinal purposes of course!
It was a beautiful day to start, and I walked along the banks of the Cam, through the meadow and into the Magic Kingdom (the site of the old railway track). It's magic to me because it grows different things to the rest of the land around, and is particularly beautiful - when the cows are pastured elsewhere and haven't churned it into a quagmire!
The butterbur by the Cam is dying back and looking beautiful as the leaves dry and curl inwards to form giant vessels. The Himalayan Balsam is still blooming and filling the air with the sweet smell and the hum of bees, and the brook itself was limpid and reflecting the fading leaves - a beautiful tapestry of pale greens.
Although I love the Balsam it is becoming invasive around here - spreading itself into the Meadow and along into Little Scotland (the wooded part of the Cam by one of the old slag heaps called 'batches'). It seems to be overtaking the wild angelica here, which is a shame.
As I walked along the meadow I noticed a fluttering in the grass. Looking down at my feet I counted five Small Copper butterflies sunning themselves on the ground. Some were very tattered and some were much smarter - is it an age thing or do some of them just lead a more rough and tumble life?!
The Magic Kingdom revealed more treasures - a wild pear tree that had tiny but perfectly formed windfalls - some of which I gathered and took home to stew - lovely. I also found a mullein blooming, which was handy as I have a friend who goes diving and has trouble with her ears afterwards. Mullein flowers are great for all sorts of ear troubles, made into an infused oil - I picked a few and took them home to do just that.
I also found some Field Speedwell (it has one white petal) and some Shepherds purse looking like a supernova!
As I left to go back down into the meadow the rain clouds were gathering, and two buzzards were wheeling and crying overhead, as if telling of the coming storm. Some claps of thunder made me hurry into the woods to shelter, and to watch the torrential rain making beautiful patterns on the waters surface.
As I headed home the rain eased and stopped and the sunlight broke through, making everything sparkle and glisten.
Fabulous.

Birthday, Bugs and Butterflies

2010-08-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday at the end of July. Some people don't take much notice of birthdays as they get older (and I am definately getting older) - but I still love the idea of a day to celebrate the beginning of that crazy interval we call life. Plus it's another new beginning in the year (I've never been 55 before!) and I love new beginnings. And I get to do what I like for the day, without feeling guilty.

Here is the beautiful birthday posy I got, with flowers from our garden.

Lucky Leo me, the sun shone, so I took my camera into the fields to see who was about. But first I must show you a picture of this little chap. He's a Mint Moth, although this one seems to prefer Sage. Apparently they like the whole mint family, and there are lots flitting about on the Marjoram too. They are such a gorgeous colour, and have sweet little beady eyes.

The butterflies are still stealing the show for me at the moment. Every time I see a new one I get excited and can't wait to check it out - they all look so exotic and fantastic to me that I'm always surprised when the book says 'common and widespread' - but so far that has been the case...

This one is a Gatekeeper - warming up on a bramble leaf, and dining on the bramble flower (one of their favourite foods apparently). My book says that their emergence is a sign that summer has reached it's height, and it certainly feels like that. Already in August, with Lammas come and gone, it feels like the year is waning, with the harvest in full swing.

This one is a female - you can tell them apart as the males have an extra dark marking on the fore-wings - there is a picture of one further on.

The magestic Burdock is flowering now, in it's second year, and the bugs and butterflies love it. My walk took me past several stands of these handsome plants, so I got to see a lot of them. Burdock is also a favourite with herbalists as an 'alterative' or tissue cleanser - and I have read that in Japan they eat the root as a vegetable - they must have very clean tissues!

There are two main types of burdock in Britain, greater burdock and lesser burdock, and you can tell them apart by their leaves (amongst other things). At least you can try...I think this one is the greater, as the leaves are broad and flatter. The lesser has narrower and more wavy-edged leaves. I have only just found this out so am very chuffed with myself!

The path leading to the Cam brook and the meadow is lined with Burdock...

Here is a Comma butterfly, looking fairly spruce for this time of year - I have seen lots of faded and tattered ones too. The Comma is easy to recognise by its deckle-edged wings - you can't see the comma until it closes it's wings, but it's a distinctive small white mark on the lower wing.

I was surprised to see one of these little people, I thought they would all be gone by now - this one, I think, is a broad-winged Damselfly - they always look so prehistoric to me!

-and a bee making a bee-line for the burdock flower - already in occupation by a green-veined white, hope they are happy sharing...

It seems hover flies are as keen on burdock flowers as they are on thistles - must be the colour purple...
Is this Episyrphus balteatus? Looks just like the one in my book...

Brace yourself for the next pic - I know these critters have some pretty nasty habits but they do have a part to play in the grand scheme of things too - and look at his beautiful coat!

He is in the Calliphorid or blow-fly family - can't decide whether he is a bluebottle or not because the description of a bluebottle (Calliphora vomitoria - yuk) says it has a dark or gray thorax and metallic blue abdomen, whereas this chap is metallic blue all over - maybe someone can clarify this...

From flies to shield bugs - you will have to wait for more butterflies! At least I thought it was a shield-bug till I looked in my book and it turned out to be a Squash Bug - same order (Hemiptera) different family (Coreidae).

Some of them like squash plants, others are rather partial to Agrimony, like this little fellow clambering over the seed pods - he didn't like having his picture taken, maybe he wasn't supposed to be there (I'll never live this down, I'm supposed to be on a squash plant)...

-and yet another bug...

'Aha! an Oil Beetle' I hear you cry - but no - it's a False Oil Beetle, silly...

and it's a girl, so I can't call this one a fellow or chap. It's a girl because she has slender knees, and the males apparently have big fat knees (femora). They feed on pollen, which this Woolly Thistle flower has in abundance. Her name is Oedemera nobilis, but you can call her 'ma'am'...

I was in the meadow by now, and chasing the elusive butterflies - it's certainly a good lesson in patience...

The butterfly below is one that I hadn't seen before, and caught my eye with it's rich dark orange colour - it doesn't show when the wings are closed but I just couldn't get a shot with them open. Thought again I might have found something a bit rarer but no - 'one of the commonest butterflies in the British Isles' !

I love its stripy antennae and big black alien eyes...

next I found a rather washed-out Ringlet...

and then the prettiest little blue lady - one of the hardest to track down, but eventually she had to rest, and I snapped her with her wings closed. In my book she looks more like the picture of a Silver-studded Blue, because she has more blue on her closed wings, but I imagine she is probably a Common Blue - as they are more common!

We have an old disused and dismantled railway running above the meadow. It used to be the most glorious wild-flower-filled place but for the past couple of years it has been used for pasturing cows, which turned it into a deeply rutted and cowpat strewn bare area. In the past year we have had all our stiles replaced with much more accessible kissing-gates, and the overgrown footpaths cleared. So when I got to the path that led to the old railway line and discovered it had been cleared I thought I would check it out. I climbed up the slope and through the gate and 'hey!' - the cows have gone and the wild plants have come back - it was magical once more! Loads of Teazels and masses of Melilot, full of busy humming folk whose sound filled the air - what a lovely birthday present.

The wild clematis or Old Man's Beard was clambering everywhere and that is where I snapped this male Gatekeeper - maybe he is the Gatekeeper to this magical land...

I walked further on and came to another big stand of Burdock, attracting lots of Peacock and Comma butterflies...

I was going to put a quote about butterflies here, but it seems I can't cut and paste onto Blogger - must try and figure that out...

Enjoy the last of the summer x

High summer

2010-07-20T07:39:00.000-07:00

High summer, and the fields are already looking quite harvest-like - splashes of yellow among the darker green of the advancing year. I managed to get out for a walk this morning, first time in ages. Didn't get far, cause the exit from the field into wick lane had overgrown, so I had to walk right round the field (responsibly avoiding the growing barley crop) to get back to my entry point.
TS Eliot wrote:
'We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and to know the place for the first time'
Well I don't think that's the end of my exploring, but I did get to know the field better, and met a few friends along the way.
I had to watch my step all the way, as the dry weather has created deep cracks in the ground. Not sure why they develop in a zig-zag pattern!

This little yellowhammer was quite cross with me. I think it may have had a nest nearby, as instead of flying away when I disturbed it, it sat in the hedge chirruping to warn me off - and posing for it's picture too, of course.

The picture below, although pretty unclear, is to illustrate a very exciting encounter. I heard a bird song that I didn't recognise, and looked up to see two birds on the branches of a dead shrub. One of them, this little man, was cleaning itself vigourously and singing all the while (bird version of the shower!), while the other, similar but without the red throat, looked on from an adjoining twig. I had no idea what they were but lightened the pictures when I got home and looked them up in my book - oo-er I think they are linnets - male and female. I checked with my local wildlife group and it was confirmed. Very exciting, as I haven't seen them before, and they are on the red list of threatened species.

There are lots of butterflies around this time of year, some looking rather tattered from their exploits. Today I saw a speckled wood, a meadow brown and a small white, all of whom posed for me - and a comma who refused to pose, but did me the great honour of alighting on my shoulder for a second or so - magic.

This little ladybird was all on it's own in the barley, climbing up the awls, flying off, then climbing up the next one - looked like a pretty fruitless exercise - but maybe it was just exercise - he looks quite porky! Well actually it looks like two ladybirds facing one another but it is just one, crawling up like a schoolchild up a gym rope.

By the time I had got back to where I started it was time for breakfast, so I postponed the rest of my walk till another day - hopefully this week if the printers is still quiet.

Heading home down Vernal Lane I managed to get a shot of a hoverfly on a spear thistle - not my holy grail of one in flight, but it's a start!

Blossoms and Bluebells

2010-05-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

As the bird, beast and insect activity has hotted up this month, the weather has cooled down, and the summery weather of April has changed to chilly winds and risk of frost – May is the cruellest month this spring! The green beings don’t seem to mind too much though – the trees have most of their spring green gear on, and the garden and countryside is filling out again.

We keep adding more fruit trees to our little cottage garden, and now have cherries, crab apple, damson and greengage. The blossom has been gorgeous – nothing says spring to me so much as fruit blossom, and it is all the more precious as it is so fleeting. If we don’t take time out to enjoy the spring blossom we have another whole year to wait! Maybe we should copy the Japanese and have cherry blossom festivals – bit chilly for picnics in the park just yet though…

The bluebells too are ringing out their brief but glorious song. Another must in the spring is a trip to a bluebell wood. Our Cam Valley botany walks always include one such trip, and this year it was to Rush Hill Wood, a private wood on the edge of a golf course – by courtesy of the owner of course! Packed with bluebells, wood anemones and primroses, it is also home to the pretty rare Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia). The flower is very unusual, as the petals are quite inconspicuous and what stands out most are the reproductive parts. Maybe that is why it was used as an aphrodisiac! It has been used medicinally but is pretty poisonous, so it’s use nowadays is mostly confined to homoeopathy – Mrs Grieve says it used to be used in Russia to treat madness!

We have bluebells in our garden too, but they are the Spanish variety. You can tell them apart by the shorter, fatter flowers of the Spanish, and the fact that they grow around the stem, whereas our native bluebells grow from one side of the stem and have longer, more slender flowers. They can interbreed apparently, and so some people think we should eradicate the spanish variety – or maybe it’s like the red and grey squirrels, and the Spanish ones will take over. These immigration issues are not confined to humans! Should we become one big family melting pot, or isolate and keep our differences?...

Another plant we have in our garden now is Greater Celandine (Chelidonium majus), courtesy of our friend Zoe. It’s a very striking plant and has beautifully-shaped leaves – be aware that it’s a strong coloniser though – if you have it in your garden you have to be vigilant with it’s offspring! It’s also fairly toxic, so maybe not one to have if there are children around. It has been used medicinally for centuries, and these days is mostly used by herbalists for liver complaints and externally for warts (the bright orange sap). One of it’s common names is Swallow Wort, presumably because of an old story about swallows using it. Medieval herbalist, Tabernaemontanus, wrote that swallows were seen to pluck off celandine leaves and rub them on unopened eyes of their young. This was then seen as an indication of it’s use as a medicine for eye complaints. I wonder if anyone these days has seen swallows do this!

Leaving on another birdy note, this pigeon wins the prize for best Obese Bird Impression!

Spring Walk

2010-04-10T08:48:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been so lovely – perfect spring days that put a spring in your step and take the clothes off your back. Next doors bantam cockerel has taken to perching on anything he can find that will put him head and shoulders above his harem and display his supreme gorgeousness. Yes Foxy (for that is his name!), you are looking very handsome.

I took myself off into the valley to see what was about and what would pose for me – plants tend to be more obliging than creatures!

Walking past the mill alongside the stream I found a huge patch of Butterbur in bloom. The flowers look prehistoric and the leaves, which come out later, are enormous. They were used in the past to wrap up butter to keep it cool, hence the name. It has been used medicinally by herbalists both past and present, for such things as coughs, asthma, digestive troubles and migraine – but it contains a toxin so needs professional prescribing.

The other quite unusual plant I found just starting to bloom was Moschatel (Adoxa moschatellina). I hadn’t seen this plant before I came to live here, and it sent me scurrying to my wild flower book. It has the most amazing flowers that grow in a kind of cube shape, with four flowers facing outwards around the side of the cube, and one on the top facing upwards. This shape has given it the common name of ‘Town Hall Clock’ – a name that will puzzle modern youngsters in our town hall-less society. Even a tiny plant like this carries a wealth of history!

Apparently it has a musk-like scent, but I couldn’t get low enough to smell it.

The celandines and dandelions are really getting going now, and I saw my first dandelion clock – another clock-based name, were we obsessed with time in the past? We certainly are now so maybe some things never change, I daresay it is because our lives are finite. That reminds me of that childhood game ‘What’s the time Mr. Wolf?’ – I wonder if it’s still played?

As I was walking down the lane lined with celandines, I spotted something quite strange out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was a bee at first, because it had a fuzzy body, but its movements weren’t like a bee, more like a hoverfly as it darted about collecting nectar. Something rang a bell from a friend who had posted pictures of a Bee Fly on our local wildlife e-group. I looked it up when I got home and sure enough, it was a Bee fly – a first for me! It was difficult to photograph as it wouldn’t keep still and was very wary of me.

There are lots more butterflies around now that the days are getting warmer. The acid-yellow Brimstone is still about, and I spotted a Peacock and a Comma sunning themselves.

Another Comma came along and whisked the first one up into that amazing fluttering, spiralling upward dance they do.

Then something fantastic flashed by, bright white and orange – wow! Back to my book when I got home to find it was an Orange Tip butterfly – another first! Couldn’t get a picture alas so you will have to Google it (as I can't get the link to work now!)

Speedwell is one of my favourite flowers – I love all things tiny, and it has the most delicate heavenly shades of blue petals. There are a lot of different species and I have found two so far this spring – the Germander Speedwell and the Ivy-leaved Speedwell (this one has the paler flowers).
When I have figured out how to label the photos it will be easier!

Vegetable Plotting

2010-03-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

This post is my contribution to the herbal blog party hosted at aquarianbath.blogspot.com - let's party!

Spring is coming on fast, the farming year is well under way, and our veg patch up at Laurel Farm is in need of attention.
E.B. White wrote, "Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don't have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace."

A lovely ideal, but unfortunately we do have to engage in the idle pursuit of earning a living – and so the veg patch is in need of attention!
So up to Laurel Farm to do some digging, and to visit the new lamb, surrounded by her Jacob family.

The lamb is a cutey, fiercely protected by her mum, the white cockerel is consumed with lust, running the hens ragged, and the pond is filled with frogspawn – mother nature has reproduction on her mind!

There are many different weeds on our veg patch, plants that particularly like cultivated soil, and as a herbalist I am torn by having to get rid of them, as they are so useful in themselves. So I harvest as many as I can to turn into medicines and mineral-rich wild foods. It’s a delicate balance!
Today we uprooted some dandelions and docks, and I took the roots home to make Dandelion coffee and Dock syrup.

I washed and scraped them, then chopped up the dandelion to roast in the oven, and boiled the dock roots, adding sugar and vinegar, to make an oxymel’.

D took a sip of it and made a most remarkable face, but I love it – bitter and sharp, great for the digestion.

There are bee hives too, at Laurel Farm, and I visited them to tell the bees about Cora, who passed away on Mothers Day. Cora was one of our villages oldest residents – born and spent all her life here, and was much-loved.

Telling the bees is a tradition dating back to Medieval times, where a designated "beespeaker" visited the apiaries to tell the bees about significant events in the lives of the community. It is still thought by some apiarists that when a beekeeper dies someone must inform the hives of her death and introduce them to their new keeper.

"Marriage, birth, or burying,
News across the seas,
All your sad or marrying,
You must tell the bees."

- Celtic Wisdom

Equinox!

2010-03-21T13:00:00.000-07:00

At precisely 5.31pm yesterday springtime officially began - and the days are now longer than the nights - well thank goodness. The word on the street is that it has been a long long winter, and it certainly seems to have been a colder one than we've had in a while. I haven't been out walking much since our trip to Folly Farm, partly because my knee's been playing up, and partly because I haven't had so much spare time. February came and went!
We have had some beautiful sunny days this month, and on Mothers Day I set off with my camera to check the progress of spring. Though the snowdrops and crocuses have been with us for a while, I think of them as winter flowers, and my criteria for spring are things like daffodils, celandines, cleavers and nettles.
Down Wick Lane, past the Mill, through the meadow, over Stoneage Lane, through the New Wood and Little Scotland, and back home via Splott Hill.
I did find spring, but a later one than in recent years – is this because of the colder weather? The daffodils are very delayed, I found hardly any flowering celandines, and only a few dandelion
leaves starting to grow. Nettles and cleavers are starting to sprout, and mercury and wild arum are romping away.
The early butterflys are about, I love the acid-yellow Brimstone that matches the yellow of spring flowers – yellow must be the colour for spring. The bees are busy again after their winter snoozing – those that have survived anyway. They have been going mad about the crocuses, dusting themselves with pollen and packing their legs with big lumps of it. The other day a big fat bumblebee visited the print factory and bumbled around, presumably attracted by the lights, although one woman said it was her hairspray – is she or isn’t she? (you have to be quite old to remember this ad!)
The frogs are on the march too – but I only know this from the ones that didn’t make it across the lane. The traffic is so light into the village that either they are very unlucky, or there are a lot of them on the move at night…

A trip to Folly Farm, but first...

2010-01-21T06:26:00.000-08:00

Oops, I seem to have repeated myself in the last post, let's hope noone noticed...must remember to review last blog before starting another.

The thaw happened very quickly, which was quite disconcerting! One minute a blanket of snow, the next a soggy mass of sprouting wheat grains - why do they put them in if the birds don't like them? Oh yes of course, they're cheap (no pun intended!). That's probably why our human diets abound with the stuff as well!

The car was stiff and creaky after it's enforced rest, so we took it on a run to Folly Farm, a wonderful nature reserve near Chew Valley. It's owned by the Avon Wildlife Trust and they have a centre there with all sorts of interesting and educational things going on.

We took a new path this time, up the hill past lots of newly-planted trees, till we came to a kind of escarpment. Over the top and wow! an almost 360 degree view, with Chew Valley Lake taking pride of place. There's a small enclosed area with a bench, and the two wind-blasted trees you can see in the picture. Near the bench is a stake with a chaps name on a plaque - can't remember the name, and not sure if it's just his name or his remains that are here - but what a wonderful place to come and remember one you have loved. And for him to have this view for all eternity!

More snow

2010-01-17T09:59:00.000-08:00

Another three inches of the white stuff sent us scurrying down the hill to order some wood from the farmer - our coalman can't get through and fuel is running low...

On our way we met a bird and a tractor - or at least the tracks! I would love to do a time-lapse film on one stretch of road, to see all the different travellers - the snow reveals more than we normally see!

The garden is still teeming with birds - it's a birdie soup kitchen! We've been putting apples out for the blackbirds and have acquired a resident fieldfare who patrols the food and chases all the other birds off - especially the blackbirds, I think they are old rivals. He flicks his tail and dashes at them, when he is not neatly excavating all the apple flesh from the skin.

Just walking the dog

2010-01-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

The village is still snowed in, and ice is making it difficult to move around, but the fields look beautiful, so we set off yesterday to stretch our legs and see what was happening in the world of winter. Icicles! Haven't seen them in such number since my childhood.

Reaching the first field I looked down at the snow and was very surprised to see that it was made up of what looked like hundreds of icy feathers - I've never seen it look like that before! Difficult to photo but my super macro did its best.

Before long we had met up with a friend walking her three dogs, and then another friend arrived with his two, and then further on were more villagers and more dogs - it was like a convention! The night before I had watched a Horizon programme on dogs and humans, and how they have evolved together, so it seemed a nice synchronicity. The dogs had a whale of a time romping in the snow, and those humans who were brave enough flung themselves down the hill on a proper wooden sledge.

Cold feet got the better of us after a while, and we headed back home. Put out more food and water for the birds, and noticed that the fieldfare who arrived yesterday is still around, enjoying the pears and apples we provided. He is putting up quite a fight with the blackbirds for the prime eating spot, and is obviously feeling the cold in his feet, as he keeps lifting them up alternately and tucking them in his downy breast. I know how he feels...

A walk to Badger Oak

2010-01-04T05:04:00.001-08:00

Why do human beings like to name things so much? We name ourselves, our houses, our toys, our animals. I think it's do with family and feeling at home somewhere; we make up names for where we belong, and who we belong with. Me and D are giving names to the fields and landmarks around where we live - to make it our little kingdom! It's great to know the historical names too, and to wonder who named them and why...
D already named some of the places before I came here, and I was introduced to the Secret Field, and Little Scotland.
Yesterday was still bitterly cold and bright - we walked down past the Poplars, past the doctors house and up the field to Badger Oak - named for the bank behind it, full of Badger setts. It's a beautiful old oak with stout curvy limbs, a real character. On the way we met lots of birds, especially the long tailed tits that D calls 'marauders' because of their comical heads and habit of darting around in packs. They are extremely difficult to photograph as they never keep still!
Past the oak and through the field at the top, we found a host of Fieldfares and Redwings, looking for their dinner. We are beginners at bird identification, and the Redwings had us stumped till we got home - I think the fact that they hang around with Fieldfares and have that distinctive white eye stripe should help in the future!

New Year, New Decade!

2010-01-02T06:30:00.000-08:00

If, like me, you like signs and portents, the 'Blue Moon' on New Years Eve will have provided a satisfying start to this new decade - what will the next ten years bring, and how can we meet the challenge?
Well the first thing is to go for a walk... where did the tradition of going for a walk on Boxing and New Years day come from? It's certainly a popular one, as groups of families and friends are to be found wherever the paths lead through our beautiful countryside and down to the shore. Is it the urge to connect with nature or are we all just driving each other mad indoors and have to find more space?!
We headed to Midford on New Years Day, to pick up the cycle track between Midford and Wellow, a path I visited in the summer with the Cam Valley Wildlife Group. Lush with plants in the summer, the bare bones of winter showed through yesterday, with swathes of Old Mans Beard framing the views across the valley. It was bright and sunny but bitterly cold, and the hot chocolate at the pub afterwards was very welcome!
Leaving Midford we saw some huge birds perched in the trees - Cormorants! Looked like one or two were youngsters as they were a more browny colour. They seem to be adapting well to all sorts of bits of water in Britain, unlike their cousins the Shags, who seem to prefer the seaside.