Snowdrops 2021

 The first snowdrops of 2021 have appeared on the Boggy Brae. They are under an azalea on the steep, northeast-facing front bank and it is this group that appear first every year.

The Tamarisk moss through which this one is growing is looking good too

On the southeast-facing part of the bank, there is a primrose plant that has not stopped flowering since last spring. Near it some others are looking promising.

The year's first scything

Tootling down our steep garden with my scythe over my shoulder and a rake in my other hand, I was pleased to see that crocuses are actually opening a bit. They had stayed shut until today's wee bit of sunshine. Primroses are getting under way. By early to mid April there should be well over a thousand in flower: on 12 April 2012 I counted 685, and on 11 April 2014, 1254.

I was going to scythe the patches of boggy front lawn where I had not mowed last year since spring because I was letting Wild Angelica and Black Knapweed set seed. There is another patch to do another day where the main group of Devil's-bit Scabious grows. Pignut leaves are showing up everywhere as usual and so are the leaves of Lesser Celandines.

Young Pignut leaves

The pond is full after some heavy rains and on its lower edge where it sometimes spills over there is a 'lawn' of Opposite-leaved Golden-saxifrage that is beginning to flower. The pond is about half full of frogspawn. I usually find frogs everwhere except near the pond but a heron comes to hunt there quite often so I guess they are there sometimes.

frogspawn

There were sheep in the field for a few weeks over mid-winter. They departed a couple of weeks ago and since then we have been having regular visits from roe deer. They have begun their chomping of monbretia leaves. I shall have to keep my tulips well-protected. Lovely big, colourful flowers like that are like cake to roe deer–a real treat after winter hard rations!

Deep Pink rhododendrons

This deep pink rhododendron has been a cheerful March and April sight on the Boggy Brae. Its flowers are just beginning to open today on its sunniest side. In full bloom nine years ago it looked like this. Toadlet and her friend would swing in the hammock beneath it.

As the flowers died they would litter the ground underneath. I hate litter usually, but not this kind.

There were actually three of these bushes but three years ago two of them began to die. The rhododendron trunks looked as if they were strangling those of a holly that was growing with them but the holly is fine and getting bigger by the year. When they didn't flower and the leaves looked poorly, I pruned them and just left the trunks to be used for firewood in due course. The rhodies now have this fungus growing on them.

Today was such a nice day that after some Saturday errands I sat out with a mug of tea under a wild cherry tree near the deep pink rhodie that survives. My feet were among the bluebell shoots that grow there and all around me were the stones of wild cherries, gnawed open by mice or field voles. And the first deep pink flowers are showing.

What could be nicer than early spring sunshine on your face and signs of new growth after a dark and dreich winter?

Snowdrops under way

Boggy Brae snowdrops are getting properly under way now. On my way down to check them out this morning, I tested my new Feetz over my slippers with the idea that it might be handy not to have to put on wellies or hiking boots every time I step out the door. Well, as far as keeping feet and footwear dry they worked a treat. Less well for keeping a grip on a wet grassy hillside so I fell over [Splat! emoji] and came in with a well-soaked backside and elbow. #BoggybraeHeyHo

Both inside and outside the clump of yellow flags (which now has a circumference of about seven metres), Lesser Celandine plants are leafing away. No flowers yet...

but the first soggy primrose has
put in an appearance.

The Lophocolea Stump

I've posted before (here, here, and here, the last one just now on 27Feb16) about the old spruce stump whose top is covered in the liverwort Lophocolea heterophylla (Variable-leaved Crestwort). Recently I noticed signs new activity on the stump.

The mat of Crestwort is quite thick now–it has been growing for a few years–but some dark patches appeared, and a small, darker green spot.

When I went to investigate, it appeared that something (a bird, looking for food, perhaps?) had pulled up some of the liverwort and dropped the pieces. There were also some bits of rotten wood. These break of at the edges very easily now.

The darker green spot is a different bryophyte, a moss I haven't identified yet, but which, on closer inspection revealed reflexed hair points at their tips.






There are other mosses, lichens, and sometimes slime moulds on the stump as new life grows on and around it and recycles its resources. Years ago, when it was just a bare stump, I wrapped a piece of hose around it. That's still there and part of the scenery. I've been reluctant to pull it off, not least because I'll have to find somewhere else to put it, but maybe I should before the spring growth of the grasses, heath bedstraw, ferns and rushes!

a frosted Polytrichum

Been trying a new way of loading photos. Hmm...

There are still holly berries

There has been a break in the sodden weather. I've done two short stints in the garden and then sat out with a mug of tea and no hat (four layers of clothing though!). In a dense spruce tree down the hill there was a constant chatter of small birds. Even with binoculars I couldn't see them but hearing them was refreshing.

Most winters we get visits from Fieldfares and Redwings. I haven't seen any this winter and the fact that there are still berries on the holly tree they usually strip completely suggests that they haven't been. At least the local blackbirds will not have had to fight their corner–fat lot of good it does a few individuals against a big flock of fieldfares anyway!

Spring greens and spring greens

I added some of these spring greens to the soup and then after lunch I went in search of other spring greens. I found:

Daisy leaves

Sorrel leaves

Primrose leaves

Pignut leaves

Dandelion leaves

and even a flower or two:

"Nearlies"

I came upon a number of "nearly" flowers in the lane and the field yesterday, and upon a surprise.

Water Forgetmenot

Lesser Spearwort

Meadowsweet

Comfrey

Foxtail

Vetchling?

Rowan

Surprise primula

A gathering together of scraps and a breakfast in the sun

Today has involved a gathering together of "mossies" and "earthies" from my fabric scrap box for a new commission. I actually emptied the box. This has not happened for years! So the blues and reds and brights and lights are sorted too. And the box needs a good dusting.

Then came a late breakfast of date sandwiches and tea outside. The temperature in the shade was only 6.5ºC but it was comfortable in the sun. I watched a small lek of midges and heard a mosquito in one ear. They are not biting yet but I have had bites in February occasionally. They don't usually get itchy at this time of year.

Below is the hazy view through winter trees down to the loch from where I sat.

Turning my head to the right from that view I enjoyed the light shining through the overwintered leaves of monbretia.

Another right turn of the head revealed more daffodil shoots and then I got up to inspect the state of the mossy rocks under the now dead deep-pink-flowering rhododendron.

In its tussle with some holly trunks, I think the holly won. Fortunately there is another plant slightly uphill from this which is still alive. Those dead trunks will become firewood in due course.

On the rocks in the foreground I checked out the mosses. There is a fair bit of Swan's-neck Thyme Moss (Mnium hornum) which can be quite striking in its old, dry state. The pic below shows  some old shoots and a few new, fresh green shoots of the same plant. Intertwined with them both are shoots of Common Feather Moss (Kindbergia praelonga) of which we have masses at the Boggy Brae. There is also a liverwort in there (bottom left corner), probably White Earwort (Diplophyluum albicans).

Capsules of Mnium hornum

Kindbergia praelonga/Common Feather Moss
growing at the base of a wild cherry tree