Wednesday 24 June 2020

A different walk - at a local country park


Here is Ragged Robin growing in a damp ditch.  It has many other country names including Cuckoo Flower, Cuckoo Gilliflower, Cuckoo Hood, Indian Pink, Marsh Gilliflower, and Wild William. In Shakespeare's time it was known as "Crow Flower" and was one of the flowers in Ophelia's garland.  It is dedicated to St Barnabas, as his feast day was 11th June when hay used to be cut, and these flowers would often be found amongst the hay.  Long-tongued bees love it.

You can never have too many Foxgloves - here these were putting on a show amongst wild grass and fern, with self-seeded young trees in the background.


Common Spotted Early Marsh Orchid.  Apparently these Orchids can hybridize, which is something I didn't realize.






So now you know where we went - as the crow flies 5 miles - as the road winds, a little more.  Allowable, when you live rurally anyway and the nearest shops and your GP's surgery are 10 miles away!  Not many people about - they started arriving just as we left, and we were careful about social distancing - I had my back towards and stood well off the track if we met anyone.


This woodland path led a short way through the woods and down to a Hide to watch birds on the lake below.  There wasn't a single one when we arrived.



Purple Moor Grass, gone to seed.  I don't remember seeing this before, but I probably have down on Dartmoor.

There will be some more photos tomorrow.  I have been distracted out in the garden once it cooled down and it's time to go down and watch the next episode of The Luminaries which, if you haven't watched already, I can heartily recommend (catch it on BBC iPlayer.)  I had the book but didn't get around to reading it and I am pretty sure I gave it to the charity shop . . .  Someone kick me!

13 comments:

  1. I love your nature walks and learning about your wildflowers.

    lizzy

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    1. Thanks Lizzy. I enjoy doing the posts too.

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  2. We have recorded it all ready for a rainy day. Another great walk, how special they feel these days.

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    1. It takes very little to have it feel "special" these days! Our weekend bottle of wine for example, a parcel in the post, a letter, and a new walk . . .

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  3. Those wold flowers are just what I want in my wild patch in our garden, we have a few so we've started.. lovely walk.

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    1. I'm growing some wild flowers for Biophilic Wales this year. All seem to be coming on well.

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  4. I love the walk and flowers :) How lovely to go someone a bit different to normal walks. Very hot here at the moment!!

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    1. I am glad for cooler weather and rain now tbh. I don't do HOT! I would love a walk on the beach or up in the mountains . . .

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  5. I've never seen ragged robin growing in the various places we've lived. I have a packet of wildflower seeds I should sow in the greenhouse--never had results when sprinkling them on rough-tilled grown as advised.

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    1. As I said on Chris's post, I'm growing wild flower seeds right now and they seem to be doing well in the greenhouse. They will be planted in amenity grasslands and outdoors around hospitals, health centres etc.

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  6. So lovely. Thanks for sharing, I used to have foxgloves growing in my garden, and well I had to try and rid the area of them. They started to take over with a vengence.

    God bless.

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    1. Jackie - I have 8 or 10 now, and happy to have them out there whilst they last. I had a white one this year for the first time.

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  7. I love your posts on your local area. Another wonderful place to walk and see the wildlife. Thank you for taking the time to put this together and share it with us. Photos are not that easy to deal with, with the new version of blogger are they?

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