23 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in flowers, nature, plants, spring, wildflowers
Along these blushing borders bright with dew,
And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers,
Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace –
Throws out the snowdrop and the crocus first
~ James Thomson, ‘Spring’, The Seasons
16 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers
Tags
#FloralFriday, British wildflowers, Ficaria verna, Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria, signs of spring
Not only was it the favourite flower of William Wordsworth (who wrote three poems about it) and considered to be a herbal remedy for haemorrhoids (due to the shape of its roots), but the pretty Lesser celandine (was Ranunculus ficaria, now Ficaria verna) is one of the first floral heralds of spring.
The flowers are supposed to appear around the same time that the Swallows arrive back in Britain (hence the name Celandine, which comes from the Greek chelidon, meaning Swallow) (flower and bird are out of sync this year, though) so we need to keep our eyes on the skies, as well as on the ground.
14 Wednesday Feb 2018
Primaveral: adjective, meaning of, relating to, or taking place in early spring (as in, for example, the primaveral blossoming of the Cherry plum tree in my photo).
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word appeared in the English language in the early 19th century, having come possibly from the Catalan primavera, the Spanish primavera, the Portuguese primavera, or the Italian primavera, which all mean ‘springtime’. And those words probably came from the Latin prīmum vēr, meaning first or earliest spring.
09 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in flowers, nature, spring, wildflowers
‘Ring-ting! I wish I were a Primrose,
A bright yellow Primrose blowing in the spring!
The stooping boughs above me,
The wandering bee to love me,
The fern and moss to creep across,
And the elm-tree for our king!’
~ from William Allingham, ‘Wishing, A Child’s Song’. Allingham (1824-1889) was an Irish poet and man of letters.
02 Friday Feb 2018
Though it’s hard to believe today, as I look out the window at yet another grey rainy day and the temperature is set to go down all day not up, here is yet another sign that spring really is just around the corner. I spotted these Marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) blooming in a muddy pond in Cardiff’s Heath Park last week.
31 Wednesday Jan 2018
Catkin: According to the Oxford Dictionary, a late 16th century noun, from the now-obsolete Dutch word katteken for kitten (how sweet is that?), meaning a downy, hanging flowering spike of trees such as willow and hazel, pollinated by the wind.
And now is the time to see catkins, at least where I live in south Wales. I took these photos of male Hazel catkins (Corylus avellana) earlier this week, the gusty breeze helping to spread their yellow pollen, hopefully to fall on the tiny pink female flowers of neighbouring trees, there to develop into fruit and later nuts.
26 Friday Jan 2018
She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbour:
“Winter is dead.”
~ A.A. Milne, When We Were Very Young
21 Sunday Jan 2018
During my walk in Bute Park a few days ago, I saw my first signs of spring. And, though I love winter – as I love each of the seasons for the differences they offer – still, it is always heart-warming, when the days are short and cold and often grey, to see small signs, like these snowdrops, of the earth’s re-awakening.
27 Tuesday Jun 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, British birds, chick, Coot, Coot babies, Coot chicks, Eurasian coot, Fulica atra
The coot is a beauty but what of its chicks,
with their red baldy heads and orange hairy necks?
Those gawdy colours soon change as they mature
to the timeless greys and blacks of haute couture.
But what should we call these gorgeous wee cuties?
Should they be cootlets or cootlings or cooties?
11 Thursday May 2017
Tags
gorse, gorse flower, Gorse shieldbug, Gorse shieldbug eggs, insect eggs, Piezodorus lituratus, shieldbug
They say ‘Good things come in small packages’ and you couldn’t get much smaller than these tiny packages, the eggs of the Gorse shieldbug (Piezodorus lituratus) sitting on a gorse flower in Lavernock Reserve. I’ll be heading back soon to try to find the hatchlings.
earthstar 
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