
Continue reading “12 Facts About The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest”

Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life

Continue reading “12 Facts About The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest”

A wider shot of the oak in context on the edge of a buttercup meadow might leave you unsure which tree has made my favourites list. Continue reading “A Favourite Oak Tree”

For anyone who needs a translation of ‘cast ne’er a clout ere May is out’, I’m offering, ‘don’t stop wearing warm layers of clothing before the hawthorn has bloomed’.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna, a UK native) is one of the first deciduous trees to leaf in spring. Its small, leathery leaves are lobed, rather like tiny oak leaves. Continue reading “Hawthorn Flowers: Cast Ne’er a Clout Ere May is Out”

Bluebells woods have a mysterious air. To get the full effect, you have to imagine everything moving in the lightest breeze, bees humming in the bells, birds singing as they attend their nests, and the odd grey squirrel bouncing around.

Light dapples through the tender young beech and chestnut leaves, moving across one patch then another; brightening or fading as clouds float between the woodland and the sun. Continue reading “A Peek into an English Bluebell Wood”

Over the last few months I’ve been paying attention to lichens. The trouble is, the more closely you look, the more questions arise.

After a while the boundary between stone and lichen seems to blur. Are some of these decorative patterns the stone itself, or are they all lichens? Continue reading “Lichens on Stone Walls in Darwen, Lancashire”

Well, you have to say it as it is, don’t you? While researching for this post, I learned something, as so often. I was wondering whether these are white doves or merely pigeons. What a difference a word makes.
I could hardly present pigeons for Easter, but doves would symbolise peace and so be perfect. Continue reading “Bright-eyed, Bushy-tailed and Bushy-footed”