Wednesday 13 July 2016

The Summerlands


I do love you mum - tickle my tummy!  Here is Theo being a Daft Cat.


A colourful splash in the garden - the scarlet of the tiny scarlet Dianthus against Lady's Mantle.


The Kiftsgate in the corner, which has grown right through the Hawthorn into a bouquet of blooms.


Last week we had to go to Llandeilo, and decided to have a very short walk across the river (Towy) to the watermeadows on the far side.  This is the view looking upstream.



The view downstream.  Swallows and Martins were ducking and diving and swooping above the river, trawling for insects.


It's easy to see that if Wales was ever abandoned, the trees would very soon take over!


This lovely house has a wonderful outlook.


This is the bridge across the river.  Our son Danny and his friends always called this the swing bridge.  it does bounce delightfully as you walk across!


Upstream again.  I can just envisage Salisbury Cathedral in this setting . . .


Erm, Umbellifer . . .


Common Knapweed.


Common Bindweed.  This grew all over a neighbour's hedge across the road from the house where I grew up.  I truly believed that this was the flower that the Moon Moth used in Dr Doolittle Goes to the Moon!!  I was only 8 or so though . . .


Bird's Foot Trefoil - or is it Meadow Vetchling?  I didn't notice the leaves.


Above and below: the beautiful Fox and Cubs (aka Orange Hawkweed).  They grow prolifically on warm roadside banks.



Finally, a close up of my favourite wild flower, the purple Tufted Vetch.  Isn't it gorgeous?  I love to see it tumbling up the hedgerows.

7 comments:

  1. "Fox and Cubs"--a much more appealing name than orange hawkweed! Did I note a pesky dandelion seeded into the dianthus and Lady's mantle? Bindweed in several varieties is a gardener's bane here! Theo's performance as 'daft cat' is most appealing. Isn't it intriguing that a cat with white paws will have inky black toe pads?

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    1. Dandelions and creeping buttercups everywhere Sharon. Pesky things. Bindweed too, come to that. I think Theo is a fully paid up member of the Blackfoot Tribe!

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  2. Wonderful wild flowers, in the fields at the back there has been an explosion of wild orchids they have never been seen there before I suppose the conditions were just right for them :-)

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    1. If it's a field which was grazed and has since been rested, then the wild flowers get a chance to perform.

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  3. Lovely photos, it's nice to know that there are still some watermeasdows left! I often think that bondweed is a really lovely flower in spite of its tendency to take over the world!!

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    1. Our lawns turn into watermeadows every time we have heavy rain Rowan!! Bindweed is beautiful but such a thug.

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  4. Thank you for naming flowers I see out on my walks, what a lovely watery place Wales is ;)

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