For day 30 of 30 Days Wild we were asked to reflect on our experiences, so here are the reflections of some foxgloves in one of my bird baths (although this one is more used by animals drinking than birds bathing). No filters, much like life rly. 😉

#30DaysWild #foxgloves #wildflowers #nature #art #photography

My penultimate "wild" post: Self-heal, which is Prunella vulgaris in botanical Latin or in Cymraeg it's Craith Unnos (meaning "heal overnight" but literally translates as "one-night scar", aka Y feddyges las "the blue doctor"). Grows short in mown lawns and taller in uncut meadows but never an attention seeker. One of my favourite plants. :ecoanarchism_heart:

#30DaysWild #wildflowers #SelfHeal #nature

There are several trefoil-leaved plants growing in my garden, including
Lesser hop trefoil (C: Meillionen Felen Fechan, L: Trifolium dubium),
White clover (C: Meillionen Wen, L: Trifolium repens),
and Red clover (C: Meillionen Goch, L: Trifolium pratense),
but my favourite is Common bird's-foot trefoil (C: Pys y Ceirw, L: Lotus corniculatus), named for the shape of its seed pods, also known as Eggs and bacon because of its colouring. I like them because they're bright, native pollinators like them, and they can out compete lawn grasses (although this means they can be an invasive introduced species elsewhere in the world).

#30DaysWild, #wildflowers, #trefoil, #nature

In spring my Lawson Cypress trees, which smell marvellous, produce red male and blue/green female flowers. The pollinated female flowers grow into cones which begin blue/green then dry into woody brown as they open and disperse their seeds. The technical term for this plant with both male and female flowers is monoecious, as botanists only call plants hermaphroditic if they have male and female reproductive organs in the same flower (as most flowering plants do). Early cypress trees lived on earth 190 million years ago.

#30DaysWild #trees #cypress #nature

Unwanted "help" with my fossil prep from a green cellar slug (Limacus maculatus) looking like it's in the pool on holiday!

Cellar slugs are supposedly detritivores grazing on decaying plant material, fungi, and moulds, and I wish to complain to the management because they're not doing much of a job on the mould in my house, lmao.

#30DaysWild #slugs #slug #gastropods #fossils #nature

A large, rusty, rear horseshoe with quarter clips and square headed nails. No earlier than 1830s but likely more recent. Found in woodland on a disused and overgrown farm and logging trackway while litterpicking. A lucky find.

#litterpicking #larking #horseshoe #30DaysWild

White Bryony (Cymraeg = Bloneg y Ddaear, and Latin = Bryonia dioica) is a climbing vine, with unobtrusive summer flowers and red berries in autumn. While appreciating wild plants it's important to remember that some of them can cause unpleasant skin reactions so don't touch. Brushing past most defensive plants isn't usually a problem but don't handle them and then absentmindedly touch your face.

#30DaysWild #bryony #WhiteBryony #wildflowers #nature #HealthAndSafety

A dramatic summer solstice sunset yesterday. The wheel of the year turns. May your harvests be full, and your re-sown seeds sprout in the coming darkness (unless you're a triffid or a krynoid or...).

#solstice #SummerSolstice #sunset #30DaysWild

"Cuckoo spit", on various plants, is actually frothy froghopper farts used as a defence against predators. On the down side the spittlebug larvae are drinking plant sap but on the up side the adults provide food for high flying birds such as swifts (and UK froghoppers, Philaenus spumarius and Cercopis vulnerata don't spread plant diseases). Called cuckoo spit because it appears in the same season as the migratory bird.

Memorable quote from the Natural History Museum who appear to have unusual coffee machines: "The nymph makes the foam by extruding the plant sap out of its anus and frothing it - a little like a cappuccino maker." /tmi = toot museum information

#30DaysWild #froghoppers #bugs #nature

A naturally pleached tree trunk, i.e. two plant stems joined together into one. This is sycamore but there's wind pleached oak in the same wood, and I've seen beech elsewhere. Also human laid hedges of coppiced hazel that have grown into living wooden walls, and lime pollards in a row with pleached branches.

British folklore claims that whatever passes through such a hole in a tree will be healed: ambiguous liminal space, simultaneously inside and outside the tree and the world, can intentionally be passed through safely by a person but their dis-ease can't follow and remains at the threshold.

#30DaysWild #ThickTrunkTuesday #trees #nature #folklore

A beetle-shaped spaceship on a tiny planet with a belt of icy asteroids.

Or a Green Malachite Beetle, Malachius bipustulatus, which probably ate slugs as babyfood, perched on a Ribwort plantain flower, aka Llwynhidydd in academic Cymraeg and Plantago lanceolata in botanical Latin.

#30DaysWild #wildflowers #nature #beetles #arthropods

Silent sundogs.

#30DaysWild #SilentSunday #sundogs #parhelion #parhelia #AtmosphericOptics #OpticalPhenomenon #OpticalPhenomena #IceHalo #Cloud #Clouds

Welsh poppy, Meconopsis cambrica, unsurprisingly known in Welsh as Popi Cymreig. Flowers reliably in my garden from late spring to early winter. Polinators are very happy to see it later in the year.

#30DaysWild #wildflowers #poppies #gardening

Leaded window in the upper storey of an old bottling works, with some panes of rondel glass, and bonus buddleia plants apparently growing out of the rotting wooden windowsill (probably covered in peeling lead paint!). The building is 1850s but parts of the window could be older architectural salvage.

#FensterFreitag #30DaysWild #buddleia #window #reuse

#30DaysWild Day 15: Just finished 1h 30m of gardening after work. But without using my usual headphones; so today I listened to the chatter of the birds around me.

Left some untidy edges and some flowering weeds along the path.

Have you ever noticed how each foxglove bell has different patterns on the inside, in the effort to attract as many pollinators as possible, even on the same plant?

#30DaysWild #foxgloves #wildflowers #nature

Penguin, sorry, peregrine chicks fly the nest at Worcester Cathedral: worth clicking through for photos of gawky and gormless fledglings.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-65889655

#30DaysWild #UK #Worcester #Worcestershire #Peregrines #PeregrineFalcons #FalcoPeregrinus #UrbanBirding #LowCarbonBirding

Some gnarly, or is it knarly, trunks. Unusual in June to be able to crunch satisfyingly through a thick layer of dried leaves remaining from last autumn. Bonus moss for the Bryophyte enjoyers. 🌱

#ThickTrunkTuesday #30DaysWild #Trees #Nature

Have just been blessed by a small beetle visiting my desk. Now returned safely outside. Don't know which species. Too small for a photo. Have a Green-veined white butterfly (Pieris napi) in my garden instead.

#30DaysWild #butterflies #GreenVeinedWhite

Ant nest hillocks.

#SilentSunday #30DaysWild #ants #nature