With the extinction of pollinating insects being one of the more plausible end-of-the-world scenarios doing the rounds, it’s gratifying that this one has survived the cold snap and sees in our winter-flowering heather some pleasant sustenance. I like how it looks as if its little eyes are closed, though of course that’s not how insect eyes work. Gives it a look of contentment though.
Enough of this winter, say I! I don’t see this as a winter shot. This is the first picture of spring. If we all exert our will on the weather surely we can psychically change it. Worth a try surely.
I’m leaving the UK tomorrow, I guess it is possible there could be a shot from Manchester airport (although I’m sat there as I type this, and nothing is inspiring me thus far), but more likely is that tomorrow will see the first non-UK shot since the one in Sheremetyevo airport on 25th October (day 2,253), a run of 129 days and the second-longest such run since I started on this blog. Let’s travel, though I’m not heading anywhere warmer…
Another one of these time-of-year things, annual photographic events — you’ve seen this flower (wood cranesbill) before, not to mention insects plunging themselves within, to extract the bounty.
The garden is a riot of vegetation; only most of it is growing in places it shouldn’t, the consequence of a month of neglect. A weekend of agricultural labour looms. Attractive as it is this unidentified plant will be categorised as weed; its days are numbered.
Definitely the season for this flower, as I pictured it almost exactly two years ago to the day — 21/6/14 — only then initially misidentified it as violet. In fact it is wood cranesbill, Geranium sylvaticum, and very cute it is too, as the bees agree.
With a determination not to repeat myself on this blog, if one had extended the timeline long enough into the future then I guess it was inevitable urinals would appear on here at some point. But with these being rather pretty ones, hey, here they are today. These are installed at a garden centre, if you’re wondering what the point is.
After the beauty and interest and light of yesterday, today was a very dull day in all respects. Lucky this bush has bloomed in the garden to give the otherwise drab day some colour. If I was gardener enough, I would say I planted it deliberately in order to play this role every March, but nothing in the garden has been done with that much forethought, I can assure you.
I have this image of the bee just diving in and troughing, like it’s the bee equivalent of some Roman orgy or similar. “Hah! Gimme nectar!”
The pollen is definitely fruiting on this one, baby. Well, I guess that’s the point of summer, isn’t it.
Unsure of the species of this flower — a two-person search on various floral web sites has not turned up a definitive identification. Any botanists out there?
POSTSCRIPT: It appears to be a Geum ‘Queen of Orange’ — see http://www.easytogrowbulbs.com/p-1543-geum-queen-of-orange.aspx
Looks nice? It isn’t. This is Himalayan Balsam, Impatiens glandulifera, introduced into the UK by some Victorian gentleman who, if he was still alive, should be made to crawl around the country stuffing the consequences of his marketing opportunity up his bottom. This is the major invasive weed around here, possibly even the biggest local environmental problem we have right now. I’d say ‘if you see this plant kill it’ but apparently the expert advice is that even that might just make it worse (as if it were a hydra, or something). The only answer seems to be to develop a taste for eating it — which no other UK species has yet managed, hence the problem.
