Orchid farewell

Just a few pictures there wasn't time to post before we left...

Berkshire does do real red poppy fields, but not this year. This was more of a mixed meadow




Common Spotted orchids in a cutting under the M4 in late June, thousands of them...








There is a host of Pyramidal orchids on the roundabout where the A34 joins the southern Oxford bypass. Not a place you can safely stop and take pictures so nothing doing.....



Anyway, that's us out of Berkshire and up to Glasgow, where the Common Spotted orchids are still in flower, nearly 6 weeks behind Berkshire... Glasgow is interesting in its own right from the photographic perspective: Anniesland gasometers are really eye catching and nothing like as grim as they come out in photographs.

River Pang

Headwaters of the river Pang. Actually, the river starts as a dry ditch between our house and the research institute, but it's not pretty! This is about 5 miles down stream.

Forgetmenots

Of course not all blue carpeted glades are full of Bluebells. These are Forgetmenots



They have a rather nice shade of blue...



Across the road were these rather nice flowers. Not sure if they are Selfheal, Hyssop or another of the mint family. Not in to sitting down with the wildflower book to get a specific name. They just look nice!

Bluebells

This is the path with the celandines and wood anemones, but about a month later. It's a favourite place...



There are several miles of woodland with glades like these visible from the road



And for two years I used the M4 to bypass all this!

Woodland

Early morning woodland on the way to work. Nice day.

Cowslips

This cowslip by the side of the road is typical of the clumps and banks all over the place.



That particular one turned out to be an escapee from this meadow.



The meadow is overkill, so I suspect it may have been seeded deliberately. Natural cowslip meadows are around but time limits when I can get to any of the local(ish) nature reserves...

Wood Anemones

The Wood Anemones are quite brilliant too, a slightly pink tinted white.




Of course they too are highly successful in their own niche




You can see Bluebell leaves among the Anemones. They're now in full glory at the moment as this is a picture from a month ago, all I need now is some sun around mid day and the camera... Oh, and being in the woods rather than the operating theatre!

Celandines

The Lesser Celandines (yellow) have a long season, starting with the Blackthorn and running in to the Bluebells. These ones were competing primarily with Wood Anemones.

Blackthorn

Well I got to take some more pictures but never got time to upload them so...

The Blackthorn came out all of a sudden. A nice show in March. One particular tree in a water meadow off of the M4 was amazing, like a while candle flame on a brown, dry grass tussock field. A combination of weather, work, traffic conditions on the motorway and finally a flat battery in the camera made me miss it and the flowers are only brilliant white for a few days. The wild plums from these flowers are small and pretty tasteless with a large stone per unit flesh. Quite paleo really, not your average (delicious) Victoria plum! Mmmm and don't mention Greengages.....

Bradfield Woods

Woodland stream near Bradfield before the nettles grow

Newbury marketplace

Just in case you're tempted.



Buckthorn and lesser celandines are just waiting for some sun without the cold breeze. Can't be long now...

Snowdrops

First real display of spring flowers. These are fully feral and make a nice patch of brightness by the side of the road. Last few days of February, early March. Oddly enough the pictures taken under overcast conditions came out better than those in bright sunlight taken next day. You need to be able to see the digital screen!




Ten feet in to the wood and there is a carpet of them on



both sides of the path.



This is really a bluebell wood and they are well on their way, but the snowdrops got in first of course.