Late summer and these two flower species are getting all the love from the pollinators, who pay a visit and end up thickly dusted in yellow pollen!
The last swifts have left my skies a couple of days ago, but we still have swallows and house martins. It is the time of the year when they find the cricket grounds I play on particularly attractive as an insect hunting ground.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.08.23
How beautiful Echinacea is, and very un-British it appears. It seems to be far too tropical to be popping up in an East Midlands public park, with its pink petals and vivid orange centre that looks like the first transmitted photographs of an alien planet.
And on the surface of this planet, the bees tread, giant, feeding, buzzing. All manner of species; gypsy cuckoos, white tailed bumblebees, honey bees.
I always make a point of going for a look whenever I visit the park for a cup of tea. They do a wonderful job at Sconce Park, there's always something to see.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.08.22
I haven't written about last week's cricket match; it was so staggeringly turgid and inept by me and ultimately all the rest of us the thought of writing about it brings me out in hives.
Instead, let me take you to the cafe at Sconce Park, and the beds of pollinator friendly flowers looked after by the ranger there. The echinacea and rudbeckia are loved by bees; on a sunny day virtually every flower head while have at least one bumble feeding away, which is why I've planted echinacea, albeit a bit late, and got a pot of rudbeckia for my own garden.
I'm rather enjoying this new hobby of gardening, although I've got various failed pots out there. My poppies have just died off, and the antirhynus just never sprouted at all. On the flip side my sunflowers are coming along, and my various seed bomb and wildflower mix planters have got all sorts of pretty little flowers growing, so I'm rather proud of that.
The joys of being nearly 50.
Si
All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 23.07.22
