30 April: Stitchwort

The cold winter and dry spring are producing an abundance of wild flowers. The stitchwort is plentiful by local hedges -

- along with celandines, violets, garlic mustard, dandelions, bluebells, vetch, speedwell, primroses, wild strawberries ....

5 April: Blossom

Suddenly, all those scruffy bits of roadside hedge are alight with blossom!  Rather dull banks are sprinkled with flowers, and the birds are over enthusiastic at 4 a.m.  There was plenty of this where we walked this morning -

And this is what passing traffic missed -

It's blackthorn, I think.

21 April: Wednesday Walk in Hamsterley Forest

Bright and sunny, though still a bit chilly, today, so off we went to Hamsterley Forest for one of our regular walks.

This tree looked as if it was draped with velvet -


- and this plant growing strongly beside the path surprised us -


I think it's skunk cabbage, but it's not listed in my usual handbook of British wild flowers, so I'm not really sure.

Down by the river, many of the trees have had the ground eroded away from around their roots -


The river itself was quiet today, as was the Forest - we saw only a few people, and those mostly in the car park.

29 April: The bluebell wood

Though both DH and I have slight sore throats and muzzy headaches (it's either a bit of pollen fever or the fashionable swine flu), this morning we decided to follow coffee at the Botanic Garden cafe with a stroll round the woods.

It was reported that the woods were crowded with photographers at the weekend - they must have got the same e-mail as us, with the news that the bluebells were out earlier than usual. (Being retired, we are no longer limited to weekend trips to view the flowers.) Today there were only two other couples with cameras; one woman told us she had come all the way from Darlington to see the sight.

The sun was behind a cloud -


Then it came out -



Bluebells are notoriously difficult to capture with a camera, and none of these pictures really conveys the light, the air, and the glory.

Beside the path was this interesting dead tree - with holes possibly made by the woodpeckers that are often heard in the wood?

11 April: Work in progress, and stitchwort

Somehow I seem to have started 3 projects. Normally there's only one main one, and perhaps a small, simple one like a sock.

After several swatches, and knitting over two-thirds of the back of a waistcoat in one way, I decided I didn't like it, and frogged it. Started again, different design, different yarns, much better, about 3 inches of the body done.

Yesterday I spun 2 skeins of yarn, one of 50 grams and one of 80 grams, using 3 plys of BFL, coming out about 17 or 18 w.p.i. This is the latest attempt to spin yarn suitable for socks. Previous efforts have produced nice yarn and pleasant socks, which have felted and shrunk hideously in washing. It is possible that a 3-ply yarn may stand up to wearing and washing rather better. This yarn has not been dyed, as some plain white (natural wool white, not when-a-mother-cares-it-shows white) socks would be handy for the summer. Half a sock foot has been knitted already.

And the third project is a bit of a gamble, using some sock yarn that I don't want to make socks out of. If it works out, there may be more about this. It's only just started, about a dozen rounds worked.

And then, out for a walk this afternoon, there were a few stitchwort plants in flower!


The flowers may not be in very good focus, but the grass is OK.

28 July: More Durham coast

Happy Birthday, DH!

Part of the birthday celebrations was a walk on the Durham coast, which was sporting a celebratory thick mist. We started along the coast path, which is well-surfaced, has lots of signs, and lots of public art works.

The flowers in the cliff-top meadows are specific to the magnesian limestone -


And include plenty of orchids -

Then we turned inland, by Hawthorn Dene -

Several miles later, we returned to the beach, where the mist had lifted very slightly -

Jellyfish were not the only jetsam on the beach; this seaweed lay next to a pearly piece of sand-rounded glass -

And as we returned to the car, tired after an excellent walk, it was still misty -

27 May: Bank Holiday

We took advantage of the weekend sunshine, mostly in the garden and around the house, but we did get out for a walk round the Botanic Garden and through Blaid's Wood on Sunday.

There were still a few bluebells out.

After I struggled with repairing a saucepan lid, having trouble finding the right tools and a space to work, we decided to re-arrange the garage, so that there is a workbench and improved storage. We got a very posh tool chest from Halfords, and now all the tools have their own place, and we can find them straight away. It was much easier to do the next job, putting bar ends on my bike.

And we took the opportunity to clear out masses of rubbish and odds and ends that have been stuffed onto the shelves, in case they came in useful.

I caught up with some gardening, recognising that the wildflower seeds that were sown earlier have probably all been eaten by the birds - at least they haven't come up - and planting out some violas and lilies instead.

And of course there's some knitting going on. There's been a series of hats made, and this little sheep - in Blue Faced Leicester, of course.

29 April: Birds

The first house martin has arrived, and is swooping about checking out all last year's nest sites. It may be finding some insects too, as it's been warm all day.

At Minsmere last week, we saw a swallow - it perched on a signpost conveniently close, so that a person more expert than us was able to tell us the differences between it and a swift, which wouldn't have perched anywhere anyway. The swallow had already built a nest, we were told.

And all week we were captivated by the actions of a blackbird family in the back yard of our holiday cottage; the nest was in a hydrangea petiolaris on the wall, and 3 fledglings were in different stages of learning. One was quite a bit behind the others, and spent most of its time lurking in dead leaves and other debris under the hydrangea and the neighbouring honeysuckle, emerging to shout loudly and open its still-yellow-lined mouth whenever Father Blackbird arrived with a beakful of worms. Luckily there was an area of well-tended allotments close by, which seemed to provide an ample supply of worms.

Oh, and in the woods here and there was a light wash of blue from the earliest bluebells.

Back at home, my Mother's Day lilies are flowering - huge pink blooms on the kitchen window-sill.

4 September: Hamsterley Forest

We took our cameras for a walk in Hamsterley Forest. We saw lots of wood ant nests, and a spider's funnel web, as well as deer footprints (that probably isn't the correct technical term) in the mud. There was a bit of this deciduous woodland -


And some of this conifer plantation -

And lots of bilberries and bracken along paths like this -

And even one of these -

But there were lots and lots of flowers, and most of them were in pink-to-purple shades. There were heather, knapweed, rosebay willowherb, burdock, thistles, and foxgloves. We also saw a few ox eye daisies, buttercups, ragwort, some harebells and silverweed, a patch of eyebright, and a single viper's bugloss (isn't that such a wonderful name!).

There was also a small area of these orchids - probably common spotted -

And as the camera was focussed on this scabious, a bee arrived -


Some red clover had large flowers -

And there were some umbellifers with intact seedheads -

We had a lovely walk, and were home in time for tea.