THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

I've been invited to go on a trek. My neighbour, Esther Montgomery, has suggested I go on a camping holiday, travelling due North through England and Scotland and coming back on the other side (more or less). There will be Esther, her husband, their two children . . . and me! You can see the route plan on her blog - here.

How can one resist? The down-side is that I won't be able to blog while we are gone and, by the time we return, the season will be turning and pictures I have been accumulating for particular posts will have become dated and irrelevant. That's the trouble with a plant blog - you can't put nature on hold!

But I don't want to abandon some of these topics so here are some pictures that were intended for a couple of urban posts.

First, plants which grow along the edge of the pavement and the drop into the water of Weymouth Harbour. 

In the foreground is the edge of the pavement. The concrete path beyond it is a pontoon where boats moor while waiting for the bridge to lift so they can get into the inner harbour without having their masts lopped! Beyond that is the water of the harbour itself.

It always astonishes me that plants can grow (and flower!) in such inhospitable places. There's no visible earth. There's traffic on one side, boats on the other. (The engines of some boats can be very fumey when they are start up and turn towards the sea.) The wind can be strong along here and there's salt in the air.

The blue is a pipe going down from a tap. You can see the tap itself on my other blog-
Message in a Milk Bottle - TAP.

Is there anywhere Buddleia will not grow?

Where plants have no hold - moss takes its chance.

And, down in the gap . . . a leaf floats by.

Below the life-belt case .

* * *

I had an inland-urban post in line too. Pavements made from bricks have become common - and plants are glad of the cracks between them.

Never under-estimate grass!

Some ubiquitous plants don't like to be trodden on.

There can be great variety at the foot of a wall where residents refuse to 'weed'.

Grasses come in many forms. Hurray!

Don't forget to look close-up! The patterns and textures can be impressive.

* * *

Alright, I know that, however impressed I am that so many plants are able to get their feet into almost impossible places

 . . .  most who read Loose and Leafy like to see colour and countryside. Here is a picture which got away when I wrote the post about the under-side of flowers.

I'll be back in September . . . around the 16th I expect.

Have a good August everyone.

Lucy

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WHEN A CASTLE EXPLODES

Last year some time . . . a man talking on the radio . . . an English  journalist who’d worked as a reporter in Afghanistan and had made friends with an Afghan journalist . . . who, when he later needed to flee the country . . .  came to stay with him in London . . .

. . .  The British journalist explained what happened when he decided to deflect his friend's mind from the terrors of war and exile by taking him on a trip into the lovely English countryside. Where better to go than Dorset? Where better than Corfe - 

Even in Celtic and Roman Times there was probably a castle on this site.
The first castles would have been made of wood but
William the Conqueror built it in stone here at the end of
the 11th Century.

1635 - 1646 the castle was owned
by the Bankes family which took
the Royalist side
during the Civil War.

where castle ruins perch dramatically high on a conical hill 

After its fall to Parliamentary forces in 1646,
the stones of the castle were used for building
houses in the village.

and where seventeenth and eighteenth century cottages are still grouped around its toes? 

Where fields and woods stretch into the distance, 

the lanes are narrow, the parking adequate and the National Trust has a pleasant tea-room?

It’s a long trek from London; not really advisable in a day but just about manageable when it matters  . . .  even when the sun shines and everyone else has decided this is just the right moment for a holiday jaunt. The roads jam and the cars go slower and slower . . . and drivers and passengers alike grow weary . 

. . but when they see that castle, the jagged ruins against the sky . . . wow! Fatigue is drowned in awe. The heart lifts. There’s beauty! There’s history! There will be cream teas, ice-creams, ginger beer. This is Enid Blyton country. Remember Kirrin Island with its ruined castle? Rooks? Dungeons? Childhood adventure? Corfe Castle and the coves and moors of this part of Dorset were what inspired the Famous Five stories. 

Click to find out about the Swanage Railway

You won’t have time to take a ride on the steam train if you’re only here for a couple of hours but you can watch it puff in and out of Corfe Castle station on its way between Swanage and Wareham and simply seeing it will take you back to the childhood you probably never had . . . back to the atmosphere of the original Thomas the Tank Engine illustrations . . . it will be tantalising, you’ll want to come again . . . but for the moment . . . as you come round the bend in the road and suddenly see what’s there, you will experience a wonderful a gasp of surprise, of exhilaration, of pleasure

The castle was
blown up from the inside
by military engineers
when Parliamentary
forces took it in 1645
after laying siege for
six weeks.

 . . . of horror . . . !

Horror?

“What have you brought me here for? Is this it?”

The shock of seeing through someone else’s eyes.

This man had escaped Afghanistan - a land of war, of explosions, of ruins. For him, ruins do not refresh the soul.

We forget what war is.

The National Trust banners on the bridge between the tea rooms and the fortress say ‘Romance’ ‘War’ ‘Treachery’ ‘Betrayal’. Oh yes! All very jolly!

References
I'm giving an Amazon link for The Famous Five books because I'm uncertain what would be better. The Famous Five, as well as giving great delight to several generations of children and giving many the motivation to learn how to read, have been hi-jacked on the internet by some very odd people (with strange approaches to sex) and sites which seem ok at first glance turn out not to be . . .

In the 1960s some librarians took against The Famous Five books because the vocabulary is limited. Some people were also concerned because children in it come from middle-class families which sent their children to boarding school and employed a cook. They were also concerned that Enid Blyton's approach suggest racist attitudes and that the children she wrote about 'looked down' on travelers and the poor.

My own opinion is that children need stories - not just 'education', that if they can identify with wizards and fairies there's no reason why they should have problems with people who employ cooks and that unless we know how people used to behave towards each other, they will not be able to understand where we have advanced as a society nor what is left to be achieved.

For Thomas the Tank Engine . . . so far, I'm stuck because I'm not finding links to the original drawings, only to photos taken from more recent books in which they were replaced with models from the television series.

* * *

Welcome to Corfe Castle  - is a good site for finding out about the castle, the village and the surrounding area.

The National Trust Site about Corfe Castle  - includes information about opening times and entrance fees as well as about the castle's history.

The Swanage Railway Site - tells you about the engines, history, timetables . . . and more.

Here is the Historic Towns Survey of Corfe Castle - topography, building types, archaeology etc.

A touristy page with a map to show where Corfe Castle is. (Which might be quite handy!)

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THE BACKSIDE OF FLOWERS

We don't get on, Nature and I. We never seem to get in synch..  I begin to take photos for a post . . . am delayed by rain or circumstance - and the wretched plants have grown so much my pictures are far too out of date to use.

I'm in the middle of a 'circumstance' at the moment . . . in that summer brings with it obligations other than blogging and I get as much behind with them as I do with Loose and Leafy - and I'm in a bit of a rush just now too . . so . . .

 . . . I'll take this as an opportunity to post three pictures which were meant to belong to a longer post. If I don't do it now, by the time I get round to it, snow will be landing on them!

I'd been struck by the idea that we don't often see the backside of flowers; we are forever staring them in the eyes or looking up their noses - so I crept up behind some and took them unawares.

June 24th 2011

Bindweed.

June 24th 2011

Bramble.

June 24th 2011
(posted on Message in a Milk Bottle on July 8th)

Buddleia.

Then, on the way home, this.

June 23rd 2011 - which, being the day before 24th
doesn't exactly fit the text
- but I assure you, very little had changed!

Grass is terribly much un-celebrated. It doesn't have the virtue of a backside - but it's great stuff - tough and varied so I'll give it a moment in the lime-light.

April 5th 2011

This is a picture I took a while back and posted on Message in a Milk Bottle - but I like it so much, it can have an encore..

Backsides, sideways and from underneath!

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WHAT IS THIS TREE?

There are some things which are so familiar in our ordinary lives, or in the turning seasons, it is easy to forget that what we take for granted is unkown to many who live elsewhere.

I am guilty of this.

When I posted this picture on Message in a Milk Bottle,

June 20th 2011

I was surprised when several people said they hadn't seen catkins before.

I've been watching this tree for a few years. It isn't the sycamore which I've drawn to your attention and re-visited from time to time. I think it is a birch - though what kind of birch, I am not sure.

It first came to my particular attention when the sides of the paths were cut and the branches of the trees and bushes which lined it were slashed. I was worried that the resulting damage might open the trees to rot and disease. It seems my fears were unfounded.

October 2008

Here is something which concerned me at the time.

June 20th 2011

Here is the same branch now. Bits have fallen off but that's all.

It's a beautiful tree, but it's part of a clump. From a distance, they are indistinguishable, one from the other, and the result is a domed blob. Not only that, they have their feet in a dip so I don't know how tall they are - just that we are standing amongst the top-most branches!

July 7th 2011

You can see where the bushes and branches are shaved off along the path. (This year's 'tidying' was effected about a month ago.) This is necessary if it is to be safe - even to exist!

This picture also show why I often like to look at trees and plants close up - there is much more to see. Take a look!

July 7th 2011

Here you can see leaves and stalks and veins. There are more colours. Healthy leaves and an un-healthy one; evidence of insect activity and catkins in their stages. One is beginning to turn from green to ripe. There is a ripe catkin which is begining to shed its seeds - you can see where they have fallen off and made a gash. There's an old brown one too. If I knew more . . . there would be much more to say.

Here's one of the semi-ripe ones still on the tree.

July 7th 2011

Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae)
July 7th 2011

Go in close and  you can see a Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae).

But what kind of birch is the tree? A Downy Birch has been suggested but I'm hesitant to agree. I know nothing about birches and little about trees but, when I look at pictures of Downy Birch on Google images, the bark is very much lighter. What do you think? Are you able to identify this tree?

I really like it tree, whatever it is.

I like its bark.

I like its leaves.

I'm not too struck when looking from a distance,

BUT . . .

close up!

Well!

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THE TREE YEAR

WE WALK ON

This is a continuation of the walk we began in the last post. (The Dog Which Sat At My Feet)

We are walking along a cliff - not a high one . . and not a steep one either because, every year, some of it  crumbles. The top is getting thinner. There are fewer places to put our feet. In some places the earth has sheered of. In others, it's become almost a slope down to the sea - but a cliff, none the less.

The ground is dry and flaking away from the roots of plants.

At first, we can look down at the little coves and pools below. The piles of rocks are to protect the land from erosion. England is shrinking!

The track is narrow, the grasses rise

and in a while we are pushing our way through tall reeds.

They are taller than my head and are probably taller than yours (unless you are a super-model or a tennis player).

In places, they have been burnt. I don't know why. (There has been controlled burning of gorse not far away and children/teenagers sometimes light bonfires . . . because . . . because that's what they do! The weather has been hot and the ground dry, with lots of dead grasses and seed heads . . . )

But new growth is hearty.

We find a place with a good view - so we can sit in the sun and watch kite surfters.

Perched on the edge, we can look down onto a specially interesting beach / patch of grey, sticky, boot-sinking mud.

See the round things which look like car tyres?  They are Septarian Nodules; part of the fossil history of the area. I've zoomed in and scale is hard to judge from up here - but they are probably about eighteen inches across. (We'll make a special trip down to that grey landscape and see them closer in another post.)

The wind is not strong but it's ruffling everything. Almost every flower that isn't flush with the earth trembles on its stalk. They don't want their photos taken!

But these stay nearly still enough.

And these.

But now it's time to open the flask, and poor the tea and chat with . . .

You didn't think I'd come alone, did you?

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Hope you have enjoyed this post -
but there's something more serious to think about
on the Wanderin' Weeta blog.
Read
Extinction Event in Microcosm.
Susannah could probably do with a visit.