Sunday, 7 August 2011
Feeling fruity
Loads of fruit on the plot at the moment - blackberries, raspberries, cherry plums, plums...
Plantlife
There don't seem to be many wildlife charities that aren't happy to take the blood money of corporate sponsorship. So it was nice to find that Plantlife seem so far to have refused the greenwasher's shekels.
I thought it would be nice to get involved with their Wildflowers Count survey - they sent me a pack with a handy ID guide and a 1km grid square to survey - and off I went.
Happily for me my square took me back to familiar ground at Markeaton Park. This is where I trained as a gardener many moons ago and, down on the farm, spent many happy years living in my caravan.
Away from the busy parts of the park there are lots of tranquil places where the wildlife is thriving. Starting off in the crem car park looking over the meadows where the cows still graze...
...round the back of the crem the unmanaged fields have plenty of rosebay willowherb...
...onwards up through the woods...
...venerable old trees on Markeaton Hill...
...and further down new woodland...
...a speckled wood butterfly...
...and wildflowers down by the lake...purple loosestrife...
...gypsywort...
...and wild angelica:
I thought it would be nice to get involved with their Wildflowers Count survey - they sent me a pack with a handy ID guide and a 1km grid square to survey - and off I went.
Happily for me my square took me back to familiar ground at Markeaton Park. This is where I trained as a gardener many moons ago and, down on the farm, spent many happy years living in my caravan.
Away from the busy parts of the park there are lots of tranquil places where the wildlife is thriving. Starting off in the crem car park looking over the meadows where the cows still graze...
...round the back of the crem the unmanaged fields have plenty of rosebay willowherb...
...onwards up through the woods...
...venerable old trees on Markeaton Hill...
...and further down new woodland...
...a speckled wood butterfly...
...and wildflowers down by the lake...purple loosestrife...
...gypsywort...
...and wild angelica:
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
Wild in the city
More wildlife thriving on the margins - a few minute's walk from our city centre is the old Friargate goods yard and warehouse, once a busy trading hub of the Great Western Railway, now a haven for wild plants, birds, insects and feral human beings:
Hemp agrimony brightening up the graffiti
Lots of other wild flowers here too...
...toadflax...
...buddleia...
...golden rod...
...white melilot...
...and tufted vetch amongst many others.
Trees have quickly established like these pioneering birch...
...and sycamores waiting on the platform for a train that is long gone...
...nice ferns...
...a beautiful sunny glade...
...and food for free from apple trees...
The food won't be free for much longer though. The Victorian warehouse which has lain empty for at least twenty years can't be demolished as it's a listed building, but there are plans afoot to turn it into another outpost of Asda - parent company the noxious Walmart. The bricks will remain but the wildlife will be bulldozed - until the next time...
Hemp agrimony brightening up the graffiti
Lots of other wild flowers here too...
...toadflax...
...buddleia...
...golden rod...
...white melilot...
...and tufted vetch amongst many others.Trees have quickly established like these pioneering birch...
...and sycamores waiting on the platform for a train that is long gone...
...nice ferns...
...a beautiful sunny glade...
...and food for free from apple trees...
The food won't be free for much longer though. The Victorian warehouse which has lain empty for at least twenty years can't be demolished as it's a listed building, but there are plans afoot to turn it into another outpost of Asda - parent company the noxious Walmart. The bricks will remain but the wildlife will be bulldozed - until the next time...
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Life on the margins
Within a couple of miles walk of where I live I reach places where nature is taking back what is rightfully hers. Along the verges of the trunk roads new woodland is well established. Further back there are fields cut off from farms that are reverting back to how nature intended. I don't suppose anyone from officialdom planned it this way. There aren't any signposts or footpaths. Just a haven for wildlife if you take the trouble to look and see. These are amongst my favourite places to go walkabout.
Woodland by the A38
Farm fields reverting to woodland...
...with pioneering ash.
Species-rich unmanaged grassland...
...with lesser stichwort...
...creeping thistle...
...birds-foot trefoil...
...red clover...
...
...bush vetch...
...tufted vetch...
...great burnet...
...ragwort...
...wild carrot...
...beasties enjoying yarrow...
...small skipper on tufted vetch...
...pondlife - swallows and dragonflies here...
...glimpse of a hawk...
...ancestral memories.
Loving it.
Woodland by the A38
Farm fields reverting to woodland...
...with pioneering ash.
Species-rich unmanaged grassland...
...with lesser stichwort...
...creeping thistle...
...birds-foot trefoil...
...red clover...
...
...bush vetch...
...tufted vetch...
...great burnet...
...ragwort...
...wild carrot...
...beasties enjoying yarrow...
...small skipper on tufted vetch...
...pondlife - swallows and dragonflies here...
...glimpse of a hawk...
...ancestral memories.
Loving it.
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