27 Wednesday Dec 2017
Tags
brumous: adjective; meaning foggy and wintry; dating from the mid-19th century; from the French brumeux, meaning misty, from late Latin bruma meaning winter and also the winter solstice (I should have posted this blog last week!). The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives the following list of synonyms for brumous: beclouded, befogged, hazy, clouded, cloudy, foggy, gauzy, misty, murky, smoggy, soupy. I think you get the idea.
22 Friday Dec 2017
I always have a little smile to myself when I see a Hebe because, of course, it’s a New Zealand native plant and reminds me of my homeland (though I was surprised to read today that they’re also native to South America, the Falkland Islands and one island in French Polynesia).
They’re tough plants. The two species shown here were photographed in 0° Celsius, in between hail showers, yet they show no signs of being affected by the Welsh winter and, in fact, are providing much-needed food for the few bees (that’s a Buff-tailed bumblebee in my photo) and other insects that are still out and about. As well as the cold, they’re also very tolerant of salty sea air so they’re a good plant for coastal gardens like those here in Penarth.
In case you didn’t know, the plant is named after the Greek goddess Hebe, daughter of chief god Zeus and his wife Hera. Hebe was barista on Mt Olympus, serving ambrosia and nectar to all the other gods and goddesses, until she married Heracles and became a stay-at-home mum to their two kids.
12 Tuesday Dec 2017
Tags
birding, birdwatching, blackbird, Brambling, British birds, Carrion crow, dunnock, Great spotted woodpecker, house sparrow, Nant Fawr, Nant Fawr Woodlands, Song thrush, walk in the woods
There was snow on the hills north of Cardiff on Saturday morning so I thought I’d try to get closer to take some photos but also combine that with a good walk. So, I jumped on a train and went a’stomping. Unfortunately, by the time I got closer, the snow had mostly melted away, which wasn’t helped by the fact that the footpath I had intended to follow, along the eastern side of the Llanishen and Lisvane reservoirs, was closed. So, I contented myself with a wander through the Nant Fawr woodlands and, afterwards, a circuit of Roath Park Lake.
I was rewarded with the sight, albeit distant, of my very first Brambling – my shots are heavily cropped so you’ll just have to take my word for it!
A small group of House sparrows was dotting about in bushes at the woodland edge.
I always thought Carrion crows were mostly solitary birds but this flock of about 20 proved me wrong.
The wood-tapping of this Great spotted woodpecker helped direct my lens in its direction, as did the singing of this little Dunnock.
And Song thrushes and Blackbirds were enjoying a hearty lunch of berries along the hedgerows.
11 Monday Dec 2017
Tags
bryophytes, Cosmeston, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, lichen on trees, lichens, mosses, mosses on trees
Over the summer months my eye has been distracted by all the little creatures that move – butterflies and moths, dragonflies and beetles, and all manner of other insects – but now that it’s winter and those creatures have mostly disappeared (you’ll notice one crept in to one of my photos!), my eye is again drawn to the more static beauty that surrounds me. Take, for example, this small grove of trees at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park.
I spent perhaps an hour here the other day, looking in wonder at the incredible variety of tiny lichens and bryophytes to be found on the tree trunks. I haven’t tried to identify these but I’m determined to return to them over the coming months to see which I can put names to and find out more about. For now, I just want to share their beauty.
06 Wednesday Dec 2017
Tags
#WildWords, autumn leaves, Psithurism, rustling leaves, sound of rustling leaves, words about Nature
Here’s a word that’s not in the Oxford Dictionary because it’s now considered obsolete but, as Oxford University Press has a habit of somewhat arbitrarily removing words from its dictionaries (since 2007 it was deleted words like ‘buttercup’ and acorn’ from its Junior Dictionary) and replacing them with modern lingo (like ‘cut-and-paste’ and ‘analogue’), I’m doing my bit to revive words before they’re forgotten.
Psithurism, then, is a noun used to describe the sound of rustling leaves. It is, apparently, an adaptation of the Ancient Greek ψιθύρισµα (psithurisma) or ψιθυρισµός (psithurismos), which are derived from ψιθυρίζω (psithurizō, meaning ‘I whisper’) and from ψίθυρος (psithuros, meaning ‘whispering’ or ‘slanderous’). Can you hear them rustling? And, here’s a little test: what’s the word for leaves like these that wither but stay attached to the stem?
01 Friday Dec 2017
A pinch and a punch for the first of the month, and hello winter!
26 Sunday Nov 2017
Posted in autumn, nature, plants, wildflowers, winter
Tags
autumn colour, Black bryony, British flora, bryony, poisonous berries, red berries, Tamus communis, winter colour
The name ‘bryony’ is entirely appropriate for this plant as it comes from the Greek word bruein which, apparently, means ‘to be full to bursting’. However, though the berries of Black bryony (Tamus communis) are cherry-red and luscious-looking, please don’t be tempted to eat them as they are deadly poisonous.
There are, in fact, two plants with the bryony name in Britain, White bryony and Black, but they are not part of the same plant family. Rather surprisingly, Black bryony is the only member of the yam family to grow here but, again, don’t be tempted to eat its roots. In spring and summer, Black bryony’s long tangling vines can be found rambling over, under and through the shrubs and bushes of hedgerows and scrub-lands, and in autumn and winter, though the heart-shaped leaves brown and drop, the masses of red berries brighten up the countryside for many months.
18 Wednesday Oct 2017
Thanks in part to following favourite author Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) on Twitter (he tweets a daily word) and in part to working through naturalist extraordinaire Dr Mary Gillham’s archives, I’ve been learning a lot of new words so I thought I would share the occasional one here. To start the stone rolling, we have marcescent, an adjective, which the Oxford Dictionary defines as ‘withering but remaining attached to the stem’. This is particularly noticeable during autumn and winter, as the leaves of some trees wilt and fade but remained attached to their branches. Some palms continuously retain a marcescent ‘skirt’ of dried fronds, and the term is, apparently, also used to refer to those species of fungi that can dry out but subsequently be rehydrated and continue to shed spores.
25 Wednesday Jan 2017
For those who don’t know Wales, the town I’ve just moved to, Penarth, sits on the northern shores of the Severn Estuary, which eventually becomes the Bristol Channel, which eventually becomes the Celtic Sea, which eventually becomes the North Atlantic Ocean, which is all to explain that Penarth is, essentially, a seaside town and therefore gets seaside-type weather.
Yesterday the whole area was shrouded in heavy, freezing fog and, as my flat is only about one kilometre from the water, as the seagull flies, I could hear the fog horns blasting all day. It may have been cold but it was actually quite wonderful and brought back happy memories of my years living near the harbour in Auckland, New Zealand, when I would also hear the horns on foggy wintery days. I was stuck indoors waiting on a delivery most of the day but, when that finally came late afternoon, I headed out for a quick wander. As I stood in the centre of this field, on the clifftops, the fog swirled eerily back and forth, sometimes blotting out this lone tree and the houses beyond, sometimes almost clearing. The fog was like a living entity dancing around me – it was just magical! I’m already looking forward to the next fog to come rolling in from the ocean.
21 Saturday Jan 2017
I think I should get up and out early more often. The mercury didn’t rise over 3°C today and it was -1°C when I took this photo at 8.30am, as I set off for a full day’s wildlife recorders’ forum. There was a light ground mist hovering over the Roath Park Recreation Grounds and the scene was lit by that beautiful light that comes soon after sunrise, the time of day photographers call the golden hour. Sublime!
earthstar 
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