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 

Random Flowers from a Mainly Wet Weekend

 Hey all,

Got some nice walks and cafe stops in over the weekend, with rare sightings of a round yellow UFO in the sky. 

However, it has mostly rained, and as such, both the rivers Devon and Trent have burst their banks, and my beloved cricket ground is underwater again. 

It is springtime though, if not officially, so the damp ground has sprung forth with wildflowers for me to show you, as I do what I call my Tourette's walks around my town. 

Hope you are finding joy out there too. While staying dry! 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.02.26 

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again - and things have really come to life in the Friary Gardens, where the early showing of aconite and snowdrops has been replaced by glory of the snows.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

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