June News

June is a garden month, as my previous posts this month have shown. Since we have so many at the boggy brae, I'm trying to learn a bit more about mosses, lichens and grasses. So far I think we have at least seven kinds of fern and at least six kinds of grass (definitely more as there are several I haven't identified). So far also, I found out the names of three lichens and the commonest moss. I've a bit to go! Photos will follow anon in other posts. I have been a bit shocked to find that some of my photos that I use for identification purposes are better than the ones in the books.

Because of being away one weekend and roof and heating work being done where we've been shooting over the winter, I've done rather less archery practice than usual this month. When it's fine enough to be outside, there is always masses of garden work (and exploring!) to do so archery goes on the back burner. The midges have come out in force after a delayed start but I've now got a midge jacket so should be able to work outside for longer without getting midged out of my mind! Little She Bear's neighbour gave her one that had belonged to her late husband and LSB showed it to me. I went on an online search for them the next day! They cover your torso, arms and head, including your face. All I need now is midge gloves! I suppose any old gloves would do.

I had two school visits: one to teach first aid to P7 kids with a Rotary colleague, and one at a different primary school to lend a hand at an archery morning taster session, again for the oldest kids in P6 and P7. The first aid sessions are our Rotary club's support for the British Heart Foundation's "Heartstart" programme. Between us we did twenty-one sessions this academic year, mainly in primary schools. The archery is via the archery club to which Toad and I belong. I offered to help club member, "Mosspocket", with his school sessions and now I find my name is down to go on the next Level 1 ArcheryGB Coaching course! This in spite of my unconventional ('hunting') style of shooting. Well, so long as I can teach others the conventional style, it'll be allright. 

"Lawns" of the Boggy Brae

The lawns of the boggy brae are flowering well.

On the back terrace, a stride away as you come out of the house. Some kind of bistort, daisies, buttercups, common cat's ear, bog pimpernel on the holding wall, hart's tongue fern. Even some grass – Crested dog's tail (Cynosurus cristatum) , I think.

 Up the garden

Orange hawkweed, pignut and heath bedstraw.
The red leaves are from a eucalyptus tree.

White clover

Tormentil (Potentilla erecta) – the quintessential Scottish hill flower

And then down the side slope

Heath bedstraw and moss growing up around a hose that is 'stored' around an old spruce stump
(a different one from the honeysuckle stump). I can see tormentil leaves in there too.

 And down to the boggiest bit

Yellow flags and buttercups

The massed buttercups – love it!

Red clover and Lady's smock among the buttercups

Some of the yellow is starry Yellow pimpernel (Lysimachia nemorum)

Every now and then I come across an orchid. Both Francis Rose in his Wild Flower Key, published in 1981 (there have been revised editions since then), and Roger Phillips in his Wild Flowers of Britain, 1977, say that Southern Marsh Orchids do not occur in Scotland or Ireland. In spite of that we seem to have had one in the same place on the front bank for the last three years.

This is what it looked like today:

Close up Southern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza praetermissa)

And her is its cousin, the Northern Marsh Orchid, which also grows on the boggy brae – three so far this year:

Northern marsh orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella)

A Thursday Wander

It was lovely to see my friend in Glasgow's old Southern General Hospital (a new one is being built) yesterday already on the road to recovery after surgery, but the drive there and back, followed by Cubs in the evening – we let them play with water pistols and balloon water bombs and sent them all home soaking wet but contented – has left my energy levels low for today. I've washed and hung out the machine-load of towels that they used. For a while this morning I thought the rain that the Met Office forecast for two days ago had finally arrived, but it was just a sprinkle out of the summer mugginess.

I lost my way (what a surprise! ;-) coming away from the hospital and directions to the motorway were inadequate but I stopped twice to ask and as usual Glasgow people were friendly and helpful.

I went for a wander around the boggy brae. I've been meaning to show a shot of our lane for a while. Apart from the boggy brae, the lane only leads to a not-much-used boggy field that currently is filling up with bracken, rushes and thistles.

Lane shots

The lane from the north end

Lane roses

Moving southwards. Straight on goes to the field; our entrance curving in to the right

Hawthorn blossom in the lane just opposite our entrance

Then I noted garden progress in my slow wanderings. It's almost worth having ME to be able to this with no feeling of "I should be doing something more vigorous." Almost.

20 June garden shots

Yellow aquilegia. It sowed itself.

In its 'context'

Three more buds. Last year there was only one flower; this year four, unless the deer eat them.

Near the companionway steps up from the back terrace (boatbuilders used to live in our house)

Chives, lady's mantle, foxgloves (just beginning to open), ferns

The 'orange' azalea

Orange azalea closer in

And down in the boggy bit, the first few yellow flags (the hedge beyond is shoulder height – half the height it was seven years ago and a quarter of the volume; that was a job and a half!)

Found two more orchids in flower today, and one whose flower stalk is only just becoming visible. So that's four so far. Three of them are Northern Marsh Orchids, I believe. The other, though similar to them, grows a much longer flower spike which is more obviously pyramidal at least in the early stages of its development. I haven't been successful in properly identifying it yet.

Dumbarton Castle

We visited some friends in Dumbarton yesterday. They fed us with lovely soup and cheeses and fruit, and then we headed to Dumbarton Castle for the afternoon. The weather was lovely and warm without being too hot.

Part of Dumbarton Rock

Dumbarton Rock and the Clyde

Clyde shimmer to the south-west

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum)

South-east across the Clyde

"Rainbow grass" against the rock

Mosses and sronecrop

Another grass 

Westwards down the Clyde

Back at our friends' house, we were entertained with close-up views of Lang Craigs and other local views through a telescope, and then fed again with delicious Philly cheesesteak followed by lemon meringue pie. How did Anna know that was my favourite childhood pudding. And she made it just as my mum used to make it.

A flowery drive and a garden walk

Yellow buttercups,

White cow parsley,

Hazy pink of massed sorrel,

Coloured my drive along the loch.

Then over the pass and into the glen,

The light bright white of cotton grass

Splattering the moor.

On the low road again by the loch

Came red campion and more white,

Pignut this time.

I thank the councils for letting

The roadside verges flower.

Garden ramble 9 June 2013

Aquilegias that planted themselves

New Zealand Willowherb on the holding wall. The flowers are tiny.

Lantern tree (Crinodendron hookerianum). Someone down at sea level has a hedge of these.
I picked up some of his clippings from the pavement one day two years ago and stuck them in the ground.
Then I forgot about them until today when I found this up at the top of the garden.
It looks as if something, probably a deer, has nibbled the bark.

Part of the horizontal apple tree and the pignut meadow.
Orange hawkweed and heath bedstraw also beginning to flower.

The successful part of the flowerbed.
See if you can spot the quaking grass heads between the tallest campions and the African daisies.

Part of the buttercup meadow, with plantain, on the south slope.
The red thing is an arrow fletching and the arrow marks the 60m mark from the target up the garden.

A different aquilegia. Also self-sown.

"Jemimas" (as my brother used to call them) behind the shed.

Sage

A baby Turkey oak (self-seeded) among the Solomon's Seal up near the lantern tree.
The top bit has been deer-nibbled.

Ecology of an old wild cherry (Prunus avium)

Sulphur polypore growing on the trunk

A day later

On 13 June

And a different view on 13 June

I acquired about a dozen new midge bites getting this shot!

Cowberry, holly, honeysuckle, foxglove, sorrel (not to mention the mosses and grasses!) growing on the other side.
You can see a bit of the fungus at left.

Closer in. Oh well, the leaves are in focus!
I love the fact that cowberry has berries and flowers at the same time.

A garden ramble 4th June 2013

Roseroot

The same clump six years ago. Some things do well on the boggy brae!

Wild mostly. I just weed out the docks and sorrels.

Red campion and buttercups with Lady's Smock in the background

Alkanet and cotoneaster and one self-seeded ox-eye daisy (there are three on the front bank)

Ragged Robin

Pyramidal bugle amongst the ferns and grasses

Narcissi, pignut and Lady's Smock with forsythia in the background

Periwinkles on the front terrace

Once these everlasting sweet peas have draped themselves over the wall, I can take the support away.
It has taken four years to get to this stage in this challenging garden!

One of the many young ash trees. This is the largest.
Looking healthy so far.

This year's entire crop of blueberry blossom.
You can see from the bitten off stalks where the deer have been.

Somebody's home in the front bank