Wildflower Meadows

The height of Summer, brings a glut of wildflowers in the British countryside. Around these parts, we are very lucky to have a plethora of wildflower meadows and grassland. Pewit Carr is, as always among the best.

Huge numbers of Buttercups are accompanied by Common Spotted and Marsh Orchids as well as various Sorrel, Clovers and Meadowsweet.

As you would expect, it's the Orchids which draw the attention more than most.

Among the biggest and most outlandishly flamboyant flowers in the meadows and hedgerows at the moment, has to be the Ox-eye Daisy. Our walk this morning took us past a large number of these statuesque beauties.

As they swayed in the stiff breeze, their flower heads were proving to be very popular with Bees and Hoverflies too.

Close to and indeed growing among the Ox-eye Daisies, hundreds of Perforate St. John's Wort were also beginning to open their bright yellow flowers.

With all this colour and floral richness, it's sometimes difficult to know which way to look first.

Lots more to come yet, have no doubt!

Long Walk

The warmth of the day today, made us want to take a longer walk and to take the flask with us. So, we set off along the Nutbrook Trail, heading firstly for Shipley Hill. From the hill, we turned along Bell Lane, walking towards the village of Smalley. I did this walk earlier in the year, but as Malcolm was away at the time, he hadn't yet taken in this new route. The open farmland in the area was variously filled with grassland and fields of Wheat and Broad Beans and we walked along accompanied by the songs of Skylarks and the now quite rare, Yellowhammer. When we reached Smalley, we stood to take in the pond at Smalley Dam.

The pond and dam, was created in the late 18th century by John Redford of Smalley Hall.

Following restoration and much clearing out of silt, the area was given to the village by its then owner, in 1990. It is a delightful little waterway and well worth stopping to for a while.

Turning back home, we headed back along Bell Lane to Mapperley and paused for coffee under the shade of the trees around Mapperley Reservoir. From the shade, we looked out, through the surrounding foliage, at the sunny meadows beyond.

The fence-line was decorated with the seed heads of Cow Parsley...

And the whole scene was framed with Hawthorn leaves. All extremely beautiful.

We covered a little over 8 miles this morning and by now, we were getting rather hot and sweaty, so we headed for home.

Orchid Time

Every year, we get excited at the prospect of the Orchids beginning to flower. This morning, with the sun breaking through and the temperature rising a little, we set out to look for them. And we were not disappointed. As usual, the majority were Common Spotted Orchids...

Their pale pink flower spikes were complimented by the somewhat darker pink of the Marsh Orchids...

Some of these had small flower spikes as the one above, but others, had spikes of far greater size and presence.

Further on, we looked for the Bee Orchids. These gorgeous little flowers are a bit less showy and take some looking for, but when you've spotted one...

... you begin to see them all over the place.

There will no doubt be many more pictures of these little beauties in the next few weeks.

Windswept

Every year, we seem to get few days when Malcolm and I step out muttering about the weather, proclaiming that 'it doesn't feel like June.' Well this week we've been doing just that. When we have managed to get out at all, we've had to battle against strong winds and less-than-seasonal temperatures. Yesterday, was at least dry, but the strong wind took the shine off things. However, one local resident didn't mind the foul weather at all as we walked past him on our way to Mapperley.

This large Highland Bull was taking it all in his stride, even though the wind was ruffling his thick coat of ginger hair.

We got a few disdainful looks as we stopped to take his picture...

A magnificent beast - and well suited to the conditions.

Something New

Where the ground was disturbed by groundworks last year, lots of new flowers have stared to emerge. Among these, a pretty, pink member of the pea family has appeared, its spikes of flowers standing above the surrounding grasses and clovers. A new 'tick' for my life list, it is a Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia.)

Often grown for cattle fodder, it has various chemicals within it, which help to control nematode worms in the guts of ruminants. Being the only member of the Pea family in the UK with pale pink flowers in a conical spike, makes this species easy to identify.

Another recent new tick for me has been the Common Spike-rush (Eleocharis palustris.) Not so colourful and far easier to overlook, this unassuming little plant is a member of the Sedge family and can be found growing in many of the wetter places around here.

Extremely variable in form, it grows almost worldwide in one form or another, so it's a wonder it's taken me until now to notice it!

To end with, just a couple of pictures of views around Shipley Park, starting with the view from Shipley Hill towards the south and the Buttercup-filled pastures.

More Buttercups, this time from the fields around Mapperley Reservoir. They're always worth another picture...

Flowering Again

Back in June 2010 the Cordyline australis, or Cabbage Palm in our garden, produced a spike of creamy, scented flowers. Just a few months later, the palm was killed by the severe winter weather and plunging temperatures of -13C leaving nothing but a decaying stump. Miraculously, the plant regrew, producing not the one stem we'd had until then, but FIVE of different heights.
Seven years later, the palm is still doing well and has at last produced another flower spike this year.

The scent from this flower spike has been drifting around the garden and when the back door is open, filling the kitchen too. It is not only popular with us either. The bees have been very glad of it as well.

Originating from New Zealand, the Cabbage Palm is actually a member of the Asparagus family and in the wild, can grow to enormous size. The biggest being about 56ft tall, some 400 to 500 years old and about 30ft in circumference at its base! It makes our seven year old specimen rather small, but no less a welcome addition to our garden. Lets hope we don't get another bad winter to kill it off again.

Whites

The highways and byways are currently lined by swathes of swaying, frothy, white-flowered Cow Parsley. Always good to see at this time of year, they provide millions of individual flowers for insects to take advantage of.

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is a member of the carrot family and considered edible, but it's taste is supposed to be quite strange and the possibility of confusion with other, poisonous members of the family make it not worth the risk.

Our walk along the trail towards Osborne's pond the other day, threw up another white thing. This time, it was a Green-veined White Butterfly (Pieris napi).

Coincidentally, this delicate little insect was also interested in a member of the carrot family, although this time, it was a Hogweed.

One more white thing for today. This one was a Mute Swan with its youngsters by the side of Pewit Carr a few days ago.

Sadly, we have had reports of a dog attack on one of the adult birds, leaving only one to raise these cute little bundles of fluff.

Given the large number of scum-bags with aggressive dogs around these parts, it's difficult to imagine that this family has much future, but we can only hope.