Flower hunt

I went out to spray Japanese knotweed with glyphosate. It's a noble plant but not native and extremely invasive, destructive even. I climbed into the field to walk down our side fence checking and spraying, then came round the front by the field lane. I was very excited to find a bunch of Water Avens on the side bank and a single plant of Pink Purslane, which I haven't seen for years. I enjoyed the afternoon light through a buttercup growing with horsetails, noticed that Wood Sorrel is still flowering on the front garden wall, and lastly I laughed aloud at the cheekiness of Bog Stitchwort peeping round the edges of Monkey Flower leaves. there weren't many Monkey Flowers last year so I'm pleased to see lots of plants getting ready to flower very soon.

Water Avens (Geum rivale)

Very pale Water Avens (Geum rivale)

Pink Purslane (Montia sibirica)

Pink Purslane (Montia sibirica)

Buttercup and horsetail
in the afternoon light

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)

Bog Stitchwort beside Monkey Flower leaves

Jewel beetles

Click on the photos to enlarge them

On Sorrel
This one is bursting out of its jacket!

On Japanese Knotweed
I hope they are eating it!

On a Meadowsweet leaf

On plantain

May whites

Rowan blossom

Looking into a pignut meadow

Over the field and down to the loch

Rowan

Bog Stitchwort (Stellaria alsine)

Bog stitchwort. ~5mm across the star petals.

Some kind of Bistort, v common around here

An old bridge over Kinglas Water

On the way home from Inverary we stopped to take a closer look at the old bridge over Kinglas Water. It was built by Redcoats and formed part of the old military road through Argyll.

An elegant old bridge

Water under the bridge ;)

Underbridge view

Bridge stonework

Old bridge, elegant

Modern bridge, not elegant

View from the old bridge – still a spot or two of snow in the hill gulleys

Another Drinker Moth caterpillar by the old bridge

Visit to Inverary Castle

While Toadlet rode on her hack, Toad and I went to have lunch at Inverary Castle, enjoying the meadows and roadside flowers along the way between the stables and the castle.

Speedwell meadow

Daisies and buttercups

Wild Columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris), "Snow-in-Summer", and yellow Welsh poppies
on a roadside bank

Bluebells, pignut and buttercups

Toad enjoyed looking at the paintings, including works of famous painters, and the muskets and halberds. I enjoyed looking at the old kitchen and the displays of Bronze age items found in Argyll, such as these Bronze Age pins and a small wooden quaich.

Who fancies cooking on this hotplate?

A neat way to store food

In the visitors' cafe where we ate lunch – smoked salmon and cream cheese in a toasted bagel, served with salad (very nice) – there was a slice of an old sycamore tree with various stages of its growth marked: the execution of the ninth Earl of Argyll in 1685 near the centre of one of the two young trees that grew into one, and the Second World War in one of the outer rings. The tree blew down in 1989.

The views in and from the gardens were lovely but we hadn't time to do them justice as we had to go and collect Toadlet. We will have to go again some time.

View from the castle terrace of the bridge across the River Aray

Bluebells, Red Campion and ferns

Toadlet also tucked into smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches but this time at the Brambles Restaurant in Inverary before we headed back to the car. I liked the flowers growing on the sea wall and a garden wall as we walked.

A wander by Loch Fyne

Toad had booked Toadlet onto a hack from a stables beside Loch Fyne, so we tootled off early to make the most of a fine day. We had time for a lochside beach wander before booking in at the stables. 

Wych Elm beside the sea

This close to the sea

Thrift and scurvygrass where a stream crossed the beach

Silverweed flower (Potentilla anserina)

Silverweed leaves looking silver

A view back up the loch

Toadlet leads the way across a gravel bar to a wee islet

Lots of Scurvygrass; I think this is Danish Scurvygrass (Cochlearia danica), a good thing to munch on if you've been a long time at sea and living on salted meat and ships' biscuit

A sea-bleached tree root ball

Bird's-foot Trefoil

Thrift again

A lichened rock

Interesting patterns of lichen

Early shoots of Small Red Goosefoot (Chenopodium botryodes) between sea-washed rocks

Looking back landwards. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may be able to spot two horses

Channels in the salt marsh

View across Loch Fyne as we make our way to the stables

Old tree stump. I can see a wild boar.