September Nature Notes

Hello lovelies,
here we are at my ninth nature notes post. It's hard to believe we are three quaters of the way through 2011 already!!

As usual I will start by sharing the monthly illustrations from this wonderful book .......

Ediths illustrations are just beautiful .Do click on these images to enlarge..........

I love the golden glow the low sun has cast on these photos of the books pages.There really is something special about the light at this time of year.

I couldn't find any September quotes in the book this month...so here is one I found elsewhere.....

"September, dries up ditches or breaks down bridges "

We have had a dry September this year. This poem is from the book and I thought a few of you lovelies might be interested in this as I think we all know the first line :0)

My own images from this month are mostly landscapes....

I was determined to get a picture of the hay bales this month . These huge round creations are SUCH a contrast to the Ediths illustuation of haymaking in her "September" painting. Modern farming methods have long since replaced the sights she came across 106 years ago.

By the second week of September most of the crops had been gathered in and farmers were out ploughing in readiness for the next crop, turning the landscape brown............

 Rather smelly manure was also spread liberally on these fields !!

The roadside verges were pretty devoid of flowers . Sun bleached tall grass was the most dominant feature.........

Along with thistles..........

By the end of the month the heat of summer had returned and the trees had begun their wonderful Autumn display..........

Some fields  used for grazing were very "blond" and looked amazing with the intensly blue skys we were blessed with........

Crab apples lay on the ground.......

And bees seemed very attracted to the ,as yet unopened, flower heads on the ivy.........

As I sit here in my sandals and sundress at the begining of October I wonder what this month will have in store for us after the record breaking begining to Autumn we have just enjoyed ??

Jacquie x

August Nature Notes...seaside special

Hello Lovelies,
By now I expect most of you are familiar with these posts.This is the eighth monthly post I have written and I'm still loving them. I have noticed and learned so much about our wild flowers and creatures like butterflies this year ,it's becoming a real interest of mine and made me appieciate nature even more.

As usual I will start with the book that inspired me........

Written in 1905 ,here are the Edith's illustrations for August.....

There are not many this month but they are lovely and here are the books interesting facts and folk law ( you can click on any image to enlarge) ...

My own images of nature this month were taken on our holidays. We took the long journey to Cornwall and were very fortunate to end up staying very close to this beach . To say this is a gorgeous spot would be an understatement. I know there are many lovely beaches in this part of north Cornwall but this is the best one we have discovered.

On this particular day we were enjoying a beachy day, British style. ...wind breaks rather than parasols...lots of layers that can go on and off as the weather changes ( me) body boards and wet suits (Mr BM and the boys )
After lunch, while the boys were playing in the sand I made an excuse of popping to the toilet and headed alone for the grassy area you walk through to get to the beach. I had noticed how pretty it was and wanted a closer look.

Like most of the beaches in this hilly area there is a stream draining into the sea and many families with smaller children were enjoying this area at the back of the beach.....this water is actually colder than the sea but lovely and clear........

I leave the beach and head into the grassy area behind it.This is a National Trust beach and though I can find very little on their web site about it, it's obvious this area in particular supports a lot of wild life ......

There are many flowers I'm familiar with like Knapweed.This gorgeous Crocosmia ,a favourite from my own garden ,was growing as a wild flower ......

We saw lots of these lovely flowers growing along the roadside in Cornwall...great swathes of orange that really looked stunning.....

I wander around listening to the sounds of children playing, the roar of the sea in the background and at my feet the crickets (or grasshoppers ) are making that noise that always reminds me of hot Mediterranean days. I did see a couple of these little fellas but they were too quick for me to photograph so I've included a close up of Edith's illustration of a green grasshopper ......

I loved the sunlight reflected in the little stream.....

And I did manage to snap this pretty Gatekeeper Butterfly which had landed on the lovely plant with yellow flowers ...Common Fleabane....

I also loved these pretty Daisy like flowers which some research tells me are Corn Chamomile......

As you can see I was having fun playing around with low angle shots I love the effect of the blurry background and the flowers generally look even better from a bunnies eye view. Speaking of bunnies ,there were loads of rabbit holes in this area too.

It really felt like high summer but there were some signs that autumn is just around the corner. Fruit ripening on the brambles.....

And ferns ( photographed from below) going brown at their tips .....

After visiting the little girls room and buying Mr BM a new body board as he had just managed to snap his old one I headed back to the beach.
 At the foot of some pretty impressive sand dunes I was particularly taken with this structural plant....

which I've since learnt is Fennel. It looks stunning close up ....

and the stems were covered in snails !....

Another creature I spotted at the foot of the dunes was this ....

Sorry it's a bit blurry but it moved pretty fast . I haven't seen one of these before and it's very striking .Apparently it's not uncommon ...it's a six spot burnet moth.

I decided to climb over the dunes and was rewarded with this view of the area I had just been exploring...no sign of all the lovely flowers from this distance but it gives a good impression of the landscape ...lots of little hillocks as far as the eye can see.......

As I near the top of the dune I love this glimpse of the turquoise sea and the blue sky with a few fluffy clouds....

A little further you can see the waves ( which were perfect for boarding that day apparently) and some brave people who have climbed the rock at the waters edge ( you might need to enlarge this to see them ).......

Tearing my eyes away from this stunning view and looking down at my feet I was rewarded with spotting Sea Holly.......

And the much maligned Ragwort ...

I know this is very common and poisonous to livestock so generally disliked but I'm sure it has it's place in the eco system supporting many insects . I love this description of Ragwort in my thrifted "Observers book of wild flowers"..........

In this picture you can see just how popular this beach is on a sunny day in the school holidays :0)

Our little camp is amongst this lot so I guess I better go and deliver that body board...maybe I should use it as a sledge and slide down...or maybe not !!

It was definatly a day to remember and I'm glad I've had the chance to record it here .

Jacquie x

Edited to add  ::  Look what hopped into our conservatory litterally an hour after I published this post.


A stunning grasshopper.I thought seeing this chap was an amazing coincidence after I just posted about failing to get a picture of these creatures.I have never seen a grasshopper in our garden before .

Here it is out side after Mr BM released it ........

Apparently the difference between Grasshoppers and Crickets are crickets can't fly and are nocturnal,grasshoppers can fly and are about both day and night...I saw this one fly so I'm sure as I can be that it's a grasshopper :0)

July Nature Notes

Hello Lovelies,
 please excuse this repeat posting . Due to my lack of technical knowledge I accidentally deleted this post a couple of weeks ago .So I'm sorry if you have read this post before, and especially if you left me a comment.
I'm having to re write it as I don't want to miss a month out of this series of posts 12 monthly posts inspired by Edith Holden's lovely book ...Nature notes of an Edwardian lady. Edith's beautiful illustrations were painted in 1905 . A time when the only way to capture the close up beauty and colours of nature was through the medium of paint. I think her love of the natural world around her shines through in these images.....







 The book also includes interesting folk law and facts....



Here are my photos taken of the wild plants and animals observed in my local area in July.......


       I love the field Scabious growing tall amongst the long grasses in the above picture.

Knapweed is something I saw a lot of in Cornwall last week though this picture was taken in our local country park last month. It has all the prettiness of thistle flowers without the painful thorns.....


                     
Even the easily overlooked grasses look pretty in macro........



    

I particularly like this delicate type ( sorry I'm not familiar with their names)...




I have just found out the white parts on this grass are not seeds as I originally thought , but the male part of the plant , the stigma, waiting to catch the microscopic , wind blown pollen ( the first grass pictured above has pinky stigmas).........



I did not know the name of these mini beasts ,but after my first posting of this picture Louise kindly informed me they are Red Solider beetles...........



Along the roadside verges tall grasses mingle with the frothy white meadow sweet.........



Also spotted at the roadside this Chicory.....isn't that a gorgeous blue !..........



And thanks again to another lovely reader (Garden of Daisies) for answering my plea for the name of this plant...it's Greater Willow Herb and you can spot it in the verge picture above if you look closely...........



Last month I was also pleased to spot my first Peacock butterfly this year...they are really lovely but one I would especially love to see is a Small Tortoiseshell, they were so common in my childhood but I never see them these days , I'm hoping it's just because I now live in a different part of the country and not because they are rare these days( do any of you lovelies see them ? )............



Hopefully this is an improvement on my first version of this post :0)
Jacquie x