Blue and Yellow Rule in The Friary Gardens

 Friary gardens has essentially two main flower flushes each spring. 

The first is the time of the snowdrop and aconite, the first signs of renewal after the dull months of October, November and December. 

The second, as the sun climbs higher into the sky, is when glory of the snows, followed by daffodils, emerge from the ground to turn the gardens blue and yellow. 

All watched over by the giant oriental plane tree, the biggest tree in the town. 

As always, it's a sadly short display, only there a couple of weeks. But it is very beautiful. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 17.03.26 

Hopefully you all Love Aconite!

 I've been monitoring  - to use a massively overly scientific term - the aconite in Friary Gardens ever since the first little yellow bobbins appeared at the end of December, and they are now at their peak. 

Same as I do every year! 

They inhabit the old earthwork that formed the town's old boundary once upon a time, nestled under the trees. 

I believe they have some kind of church related nickname that escapes me at the moment; to me they are like little blond choristers in a green robe, especially before the flowers open up. 

Probably heretical to say it, but I like them more than snowdrops...there, you can stop following me now!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 03.02.26 

The Great Tree

 There is a tree that I have long believed to be the largest tree in town, and I haven't come across anything to make me doubt this. Indeed, many other people agree. 

It lies within The Friary Gardens, where once upon a time Henry VII gave the monks money to set up a small abbey, only for Henry VIII to imprison the monks and flatten it in 1539. 

Some may recognise it as the place where I photograph the aconite every January, up on a bank that was later constructed as a civil war era rampart. 

No-one knows how old the tree is, although they don't believe it was around at the time of the abbey. So maybe it is 200-300 years old. For many years many people, including myself, thought it was a london plane tree. 

It is not. It is an oriental plane tree, apparently the leaves and the seeds are the giveaway. 

It must have seen countless families take picnics under its boughs, and thousands of dogs walk around the grounds. Every day children scoot, skate and cycle by its giant, tumerous trunk. 

It is The Great Tree of the town, and long may it remain so. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.11.25

Glory in the Gardens

 We've had better weather - briefly as it has started raining again - and things have really come to life in the Friary Gardens, where the early showing of aconite and snowdrops has been replaced by glory of the snows. 

It's not a native wildflower, it's a cultivar of squill of some kind I believe, but it grows wildly enough, and the bees seem to love it too. 

I've had some time off, spending it with my sister, finally finding an ideal internment spot for my mum's ashes after so long. The original plan was to scatter her in a favourite spot in her Scottish hometown, but the pandemic got in the way of all that, and we've all decided we'd rather she was close to home so we have a spot to visit on important dates. 

So by a mighty and gnarly old tree, which we felt sure she'd have loved, she will rest. 

With time to walk - and run too! - my Tourette symptoms eased somewhat. Although my increasingly middle aged body often wakes with sciatica and other twinges. Yet I do not feel mentally old, I feel as I did when I was 15 in many ways. 

Long may that continue!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 19.03.24

First Bee for a Hot Minute

 We've had milder temperatures - I'm sure I don't need to tell you that! - and even a bit of sunshine, but nature's calendar has been rather slow to catch up after the two frozen weeks we had. I've seen a glimpse of a small tortoiseshell on the wing, and the queen bumbles are on the move again, but the chiff chaffs aren't singing yet, nor have I seen a beautiful lemon yellow brimstone butterfly on the wing yet. 

Indeed, I've only just seen another honeybee on the wing, a very skittish individual feeding off glory of the snows in Friary Garden, which is well carpeted in blue with them at the moment. 

I hope things are getting more spring like where you all are!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.03.23

Aconite is Out!

 Yes, it is my annual - "Oh look, aconite!" post, this one for 2023!

As ever, the first place they emerged was in Friary Gardens, the small park through the town centre overlooked by historic buildings and featuring the mightiest tree in the town, a huge london plane tree with a warty trunk like a huge elephant's foot. 

I'm trying to be more active now and get some more walking done, although a stomach upset this week has hindered things a little. I've been enjoying setting out, Radio 4 in my ear as I used to, and just seeing what is out there. 

I feel much better for it, although my ankle is grumbling a little tonight!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 16.01.23

Who is First to Bloom in 2023?

 At the weekend, I took myself out on my bike and on foot  - if it wasn't far! - to see if anything was in bloom, especially after that brutal spell of cold weather that although hadn't dropped any snow on the ground, there had been some very hard frosts. 

Of course, there's one location that always seems to have the first flowers emerging, and when I rode off down there on my bike, in the same little patch of ground as ever, snowdrops were out. 

I swear it's always the same bulb that comes up first every year, the first of the little white flowers always seems to be in exactly the same place by the Polish Air Bridge memorial in the cemetery.

I wonder how many years this has been the case - I'm sure I've been finding them in that spot for over ten years or more!

The other place I like to look is in The Friary Gardens, where the aconite grows. I've been down a couple of times, and haven't spotted any little yellow spots of colour under the trees yet. However, they've been beaten into flower by red dead nettle. 

I think it might be a bit early for them yet. 

At work, we have some rather sorry looking daises poking up, but the most vivid sight is not a flower at all. It is the vivid pink coral berries, where a mere couple of months ago there were bees feeding off the bright coral berry flowers 

I will keep you posted - we also seem to be a bit ahead of the rest of you here!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.01.23

The Latest New Emergences

 Just took a wander around over the weekend, a casual, cup of tea kind of wandering here and there just enjoying the outside world. 

We have another pair of new emergences in Friary gardens - the first glory of the snows of the year, little blue spots against the bare earth, and the wonderfully witchy sounding, triffid looking green helleborine.

Nothing exciting, nothing I haven't seen before in exactly the same place. But I enjoy it every year, enjoy showing it to you every year. When I'm walking and seeing things, I don't tic. My tourette symptoms and ADHD symptoms are minimised when I'm in nature.

That's why I would prescribe it to everyone.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.02.22

White Flowers, Yellow Flowers, Purple Flowers

 Amidst all the strong wins blowing from Malik and Corrie, I managed to get one good walk in, and more bravely, a visit to an enclosed space for cricket practice. Yikes!

Me, and my rickety ankle, came through that ok, although I didn't bowl amazingly well and probably never will again. Bowling was preferable however to the insane physical jerks the coach was putting the younger players from the first team through. Us older ones were wise enough to stay out of that. 

Still, it helped with my Tourette tics, which have been occasionally rather wild the last few days. I need to burn a lot of energy up on the days when I can. 

As for the walking, just the usual bimble to the park, through the cemetery and around the lake. More flowers are out, the aconite forming familiar yellow carpets around the usual grave, and under the trees in Friary Gardens. The snowdrops have their allocated spots, the crocuses theirs. Everything comes back in the same place, year after year. 

Later on it will be the primroses by the ditch, and the long lines of daffodils along the path. And I have my place too, walking among it every late winter and spring. 

It brings about a sort of peace, this repetition.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.02.22

First Aconite, First Post of the Year

 Today has been an utter write off, but yesterday I took advantage of the insanely mild weather with a 90 minute walk around town.

With snowdrops already sighted for the season, and already more numerous than before in the cemetery, I decided to head down to Friary Gardens to try and spot the first winter aconite of the season. 

I thought I was perhaps too early, but as it turned out there a few of these little yellow jewels in bloom tucked in amongst the leaves. Soon they will begin to form the familiar golden carpets under the trees - in town they grow here more than anywhere else. 

2022 then - what will it bring? Can anyone really know these days? I fully intend to look after my neurological health better if I can - hopefully my ankle will continue to improve to allow me to walk more, which in turn helps with my Tourettes and Autism issues. 

If I can't get outside and burn up a lot of energy, it really shows with increased symptoms associated with my condition. 

Si

All pictures and text copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.01.2022