It has been so hot….. last week we went for a cool walk along the Royal Military Canal, stopping for a shady picnic by the water. During our walk, I was struck by the different varieties of wild flowers beside the path.
I’m not good at flowers. I can learn a name one day, and have forgotten it the next. And so many look the same, particularly little yellow vaguely dandelion-ish things – they are the equivalent of little brown birds.
My sister is much better than me – I can remember admiring her carefully-compiled and labelled pressed flower albums. Not surprisingly, she grew into a very skilled and knowledgeable gardener.
Philosopher and I often reflect that modern kids don’t seem to have hobbies in the same way that we did. Both of us collected stamps when we were children, involving much agreeable palaver around soaking the stamps off envelopes, tweezing, licking stamp hinges (which came in little tins), arranging them in albums, comparing contents of swap books with friends etc. This article in the Telegraph is among many speculating about why that particular hobby has declined.
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| Stamp hinges |
But back to the flowers. Being a modern sort of person I photographed them all then tried to identify the names when I got home, not always correctly, I fear. Why are decent pictures in flower books so rare? This may look like a boring list but there are thirty-seven different flowers here, just on one short walk. Also, the numerous umbellifers (cow parsley family to you) are now largely over. If we had gone to the sea-shore we would have found many more different flowers, like sea-kale and yellow horned poppies.
Navelwort Willowherb
Speedwell Self-heal
Scarlet Pimpernel Dead-nettle
Yellow flag Woundwort
Buttercup Foxglove
Hawkweed Marsh Thistle
Daisy White water lily
Ox-eye daisy Corn chamomile
Hedge Mustard Shepherd’s Purse
Rape Angelica
Bird’s Foot Trefoil Hedge Bindweed
Wild carrot Plantain
Ragwort Honeysuckle
Sow thistle Dog rose
Field poppy Black medick
Opium poppy Red and white clover
Tufted Vetch Herb Robert
Cut leaved Cranesbill Mallow
The reeds were full of electric blue damselflies. Here are a few pictures from our walk.
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| Honeysuckle |
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| Navelwort on old wall |
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| White waterlilies |
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| Bird’s foot trefoil plus bee |
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| Philosopher, plus poppies, field chamomile and yellow rape |
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| Tufted vetch |
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| Blue damselfly |
To change the subject completely: you remember I mentioned in a previous post about having our staircase ‘retrofitted’ to its 1970’s appearance. Well, it is done now, and Philosopher has just finished painting it. Here is before and after. The new look is much lighter, and far more in keeping with the house. We are very pleased.
That’s it now. Downstairs to watch Wimbledon with a cold glass of fizzy wine.
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| Before |
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| After |
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