FOOT STICKING - MAY

Honeysuckle beside golden elderberry leaf.

Here's a post where I place my feet somewhere and with at least one of them stuck firmly to the spot, look around to see what I can see. Mostly, I keep both feet 'stuck' but sometimes I wobble then I have to move one or I'll fall over. Once I did fall into a bush by trying to look behind it while keeping my feet in front of it. In some ways this is a meditative exercise. In others, an unconventional form of yoga. Either way, it's surprising what you can see if, for a moment, you stand still and refuse to move.

Today, when I plonked myself in front of a hedgerow, it was its leaves which caught my attention. There are flowers . . . but mostly we're in a kind of flower-lull. Being 'verdant' is currently the 'in' state to be. Or gold. This honeysuckle (above) with it's early reddish-ness is beside a golden elderberry bush. I've never known why some elderberry bushes have golden leaves when most are green. Is it a variety? Is it a deficiency? Is it a mis-identification?

And here's another puzzle; did a golden snail decide to sit on one of the golden leaves because it would be a good place to hide? or did whatever turned the leaves gold turn the snail gold too?

Hedgerow silhouettes have changed again. In winter they were a gathering of arches and spikes. Trees were like frost patterns. With spring they went frothy with blackthorn blossom, then blodgey with hawthorn, fringed with the floppiness of bluebells. Now they have filled out. At first sight they are a green mass, a unity. It's only when you peer in that you see how many plants go into the making of one blob. But the overall hedeginess is broken up here and there with spurts of honeysuckle between us and the sky and the stiffness of desiccated blackberries which somehow got stuck in time last autumn.

Blackthorn . . . I think I've mentioned before how it begins the year dramatically then fades into obscurity during the summer and comes out of hiding in the autumn when people search for its fruits - sloes. It's funny that. Apple trees grow apples. Pear trees grow pears. Raspberry canes grow raspberries - but blackberries grow on brambles and blackthorn bears sloes.

Underfoot, things are a bit . . . um . . . not very attractive. The alexanders have been mown down and all plants shaved to earth level. Now that cyclists rule the world, we pedestrians have to put up with views less interesting so cyclists won't suffer the inconvenience of driving over us when they come round corners.

A few years ago, it was very aggravating when the council shaved the bushes back as well. Since then, there have been flat sided elders and sheer walls of ivy. One gets used to it. Well, no. I haven't got used to it. Nature is not meant to be flat sided. Resigned may be a better description. No. That's not right. Morose. That's better. Brambles would like to take over the world. A certain amount of cutting back is necessary or we'll end up in a thorny mono-culture. And it is good to have a path to walk along . . . but all the same . . . Ah well, don't worry, green will return. It does.

Way high up - too high to photograph crisply -
honeysuckle buds are ready.

Some links.
Countryside Hedgerows: Protection and Management - the Government
Road Verges are a Refuge for Some of Our Rarest Plants - Plantlife
Plantlife's Campaign to Protect Wildflowers and Nature on Roadside Verges - Plantlife

If you too would  like to stick your foot somewhere and see what you can see - the link box for 'Stuck Foot Posts' will stay open till 7pm (UK time) on 25th May.

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COHABITING WITH TREES - TREE FOLLOWING - CHOOSING THE TREE

The leaves of this particular hawthorn tree open earlier than any other hawthorn nearby.
The white string-like thing is the remains of  last year's bindweed.

This photo was taken on 3rd February 2014.

A problem with choosing trees at this time of year is that, come high summer, some will be knee deep in undergrowth, shaded beneath bigger trees and covered in plants which use them as climbing frames. This, in itself is interesting. When following a tree, you as much find out what happens to it as what it, itself does.

I've always found this interesting. As the year goes by, my focus shifts from tree to plants growing by it. Then in autumn it reverts to the tree itself and the changes it undergoes - if it's deciduous its leaves will change colour and fall. If it's not - they won't! - though its seeds may. May!

In previous years of tree following, an initial flurry of posts can be followed by a gradual drifting away. Spring gets better cover even than summer, let alone winter. What happens? So it's good to think this out in advance. We can decide, now, if we wish, to see any tree as part of its environment; decide to appreciate the undergrowth which obscures it as much as the fruits which fall from it. After all, if trees were animals, we wouldn't think twice about examining their habitat. Or we can make sure to choose trees which will keep their trunks clear for most of the year.

Part of the fun can be in choosing randomly and finding out what will happen. Keeping an open mind. But a little detective work can offer good hints about what will happen in the year ahead. We can allow this to influence our choice if we want it to.

11th February 2014

A broken branch of a blackberry bramble cuts across this view of blackthorn.

Blackberry brambles don't go away in the winter. Their thorny branches stay put - as do many of their leaves. Brambles don't recede. They advance. They are vigorous. They are prickly. If you see your tree as a princess and you as a prince on the other side of thorns - ignore the presence of brambles.

Convolvulus (Bindweed) August 28th 2012

This is what convolvulus (bindweed) looks like when in flower.

This was growing on the fence of a school sports' field.

The problem with convolvulus is not just its vigour but it produces so many large leaves

they cover any sight of their host beneath - whether chain link or bramble or tree.

Some plants grow as well in the wild parts of town as they do in hedgerows.

Convolvulus is one of my favourite wild plants. If you are not familiar with it - think of a vigorous, very very vigorous, overwhelmingly vigorous Morning Glory in white. It's not called Bindweed for nothing. Its stems wind round and round everything they touch - grass, trees, even themselves. They are like rope. The flowers are fantastic - huge, huge (huge for a climate like ours in England) trumpets. Everything under convolvulus disappears. If your tree is under a pile of it you may find your centre of interest switches to which direction it twines in. Watch for its white strings still hanging from trees and bundled in undergrowth and decide accordingly. Where it was last year - it will return. (See the picture of the hawthorn tree at the top of the post.)

11th February 2014

If I follow this tree, I won't be able to get close to its trunk because of a steep bank and undergrowth.
But there is a wild rose nearby. I could include that in my study.

Then there are the insects. I've been looking at buddleia bushes and trees, wondering whether to choose one of these for 2014.

Their bark is fantastic - contorted and flaky. Their leaves come early. Their flowers stay late; and remain like dark, stiff fossils over winter. I don't specially like buddleia flowers - but butterflies do. What's more, butterflies seem to distinguish between one buddleia tree and another. Some years there seem to be hundreds of painted ladies on one while further along another is largely ignored. I don't know why. Maybe I should choose two and compare? Or I might chose a tree whose trunk is hard to get to close for the sake of seeing the insects I know will come and haunt branches overhanging the verge. Or I might chose a particular buddleia because the plants around it will be interesting. This one will have wild roses nearby. I could include them in my tree following.

(For more about Tree Following and how to join in - go to Loose and Leafy's Tree Following Page.)

* * *

Beth at Plantpostings has introduced her tree - a Shagbark Hickory.

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The next linky box for tree following posts will be on March 7th. After that, there will be a linky box on the 7th of every month. Each box will stay open for a week. That way, we will be able to compare the progress of 'our' trees through the year. If you too would like to follow a tree and your name is not yet on the list (see the Tree Following Page) - let me know either by leaving a comment or emailing me at looseandleafy@googlemail.com .

IT DEPENDS ON THE BACKGROUND

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) and Gorse. May 2nd 2013 

What we see depends on what is there. Obvious.

What takes our attention depends on our interest. Clearly.

Some things we delight in as we walk. Like the yellow of gorse or the blueness of sky.

Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) and Blackthorn -May 2nd 2013 

Or the whiteness of blackthorn blossom.

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OH ALRIGHT - THERE ARE FLOWERS TOO!

While bemoaning grey days and bleak economics, one can't pretend that green plants and bright flowers aren't great lifters-of-spirits-ers.

There are the obvious ones for the time of year.

Like blackthorn blossoms that open before their leaves arrive.

And I am specially encouraged by flowers which spring open in city streets. Ones which live there despite the odds. (Or, perhaps it's odd that we don't expect them and sometimes don't see them there.)

March 26th 2013

This flower is growing at the top of a flight of underpass steps in Bournemouth city centre. (A city with a population of around 168,000.) It's a Speedwell. Maybe a Common Field-Speedwell (Veronica persica) (which can also be called 'Persian Speedwell' - pretty exotic name as well as pretty flower!).  Or it might be a Green Field-Speedwell (Veronica agrestis). Maybe I'll get a definite ID from iSpot?

March 26th 2013

This is the plant the flower is growing from. As you can see, there are quite a few buds waiting to open.

And between the cobbles of speed bumps in a Weymouth housing estate.

March 31st 2013

Common Whitlowgrass (Erophila verna). Each flower takes up about two square millimeters. These are not growing in a busy road - but dustcarts and cars do drive over them. I doubt (though I haven't stood there to check) that anyone (except me and people who've stopped to ask why I'm crawling around in the road) have noticed they are there.

Oh, and why not

March 31st 2013

notice the daisies? These are growing in an un-trampled area of a park. Unsurprisingly un-trampled because there is one basket ball hoop and one five aside goal. Not entirely inspiring when both are for team sports!

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THE TREES GO ROUND AND ROUND

February 24th 2013

On March 14th 2010 I published a post called 'Take One Tree'. It it's a sycamore and I've been following its progress ever since - though 'progress' probably isn't the right word because it never seems to do anything. Even the ivy which was cut away last year is re-growing this. There's a Hart's Tongue Fern that never moves. There's an Arum maculatum that dies down and come back. There are celandines which used to flower with exuberance but have become a bit tatty and drab over the last few years. The ditch at the foot of the bank is a bit more silted than it was. And that's about it! It's not a very leafy tree and the leaves it does produce are very high up. But, still, I follow!

Then there's the clump of elderberry trees.

March 14th 2013

I began following them in December 2008 when I was still using the camera on my phone. I even gave them a blog of their own. (The Elderberry Log Blog been much neglected. Perhaps I should revive it.) At first,  I followed a particular whirl in the wood of one of the trees. This turned out to be a mistake because when the leaves had grew round it, it became impossible to photograph. It time, bits flaked away. So I switched to a crooked branch. (You can see the crook clearly in a post from August 2012 called 'Who Stole My Leaf'.) And now a bit of the crook has broken away so it's a crook no longer.

At first, I thought it had gone completely but 'our' shoots are still there, simply a little higher because, with less weight on it, the branch has sprung higher.

March 14th 2013

And now that it's March, our eyes begin to turn towards the hawthorn and blackthorn trees. Of the blackthorns, I've been specially noticing some young trees. On this one, you can still see the shriveled remains of last year's sloes.

And all the time there's gorse.

March 14th 2013

.

Soft green buds.

March 14th 2013

And startling bursts of gold.

The years go round. They stay the same. They flake away. Things live. Things die. And live again.

Click HERE for previous Sycamore Tree Following posts.

I'm Following a Tree

Are You?

A Growing List!

Some people follow a tree for a year, some for longer.

There's a list of tree-following bloggers under a tab below the picture at the top of the page.

Over the next little bit, I'll be revising it and visiting tree-following bloggers to find out if they are still following their tree . . . or have stopped . . . or have moved on to a new one.

Meanwhile . . .

Joy at The Little House in the No-so-big Woods is setting off this year with a cedar elm. Her first post is Be careful, tree: there's someone following you!

(How's that for a title!)

and

Laura (who used to blog at Patio Patch) is following a London Laburnum on her new blog, Tell Tale Therapy.

Do you have a tree following post? If so, let me know, and, despite my profound inefficiency and erratic blogging technique - I'll endeavor to remember to put a link here!

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A POST IN GREY

One of the delights of autumn is the way the skies swing between grey and blue. How a plant 'looks' (it's emotional appeal to humans) is closely connected with how brightly the light shines. There's something cheerfully heart lifting about crisp colours and lots of easily discerned detail. When colour and detail vanish, texture tends to vanish too. We are left with shape and awe.

November 15th 2012

Immediately - a problem with ID.
Is this the top of a sycamore or maple?
Looking around for an answer, I've come across a tree called
Sycamore Maple
(Acer pseudoplatanus)
Descriptions suggest we might not only confuse this maple with sycamores
but, in some seasons, with plane trees too.
Confusion comes easy!
Meanwhile, I don't know what this pretty tree is.

This is one of my favourite times of year and, although I realise it would be boring to have non-stop silhouettes, I'm always pleased when these newly re-revealed structures of the natural world re-appear against the sky.

November 15th 2012

This is very top of the tree above.
Asking if anyone knows its identity

would have made more sense when it still had leaves!

BUT - once one knows . . . 

being able to identify a tree from its winter shape would be a handy skill,

don't you think?

As ever, I'm aware I have taken these very same pictures before - same plant, same angle, same blank grey sky. It's almost like the annual school photo. The subjects up, fix their smiles and - zam, that's them to put in the album. Once I like something, I tend to get stuck on it. When I see the same shape as last year, I find it oddly heart warming. But, this time, old scenes have given me a new idea.

November 15th 2012

This blackberry loop is hanging from the elderberry tree I'm 'following'.

The clump is so well covered with ivy and brambles, I missed it shedding its leaves!

When I'm trying to identify a plant or tree (and this can be a very ordinary plant or tree, I rarely come across anything exotic) I plough around blogs and ID sites and, of course, upload pictures to Ispot (which I can never plug enough!). But it's often difficult to draw things together. There's a real leaf here, a drawing there, a diagram of tree shape, a flower alive but not what it looks like when it dies. Very hit and miss - and will remain so. Apart from all the other practicalities, every leaf is different. Each tree has a history written in its bark.

November 15th 2012

These are blackthorn leaves.

Blackthorn belongs to the plum family. In summer, its leaves are glossy and dark green.
Its autumn transformation is startling, more so than in trees like sycamores whose
autumn leaves, apart from a change in colour, aren't much different from their summer selves.

The range of plants and trees I cover in this blog is very, very narrow. The challenge of this is to keep it interesting. The advantage is that I have a lot of pictures of the same ones at different times of year. Even then, there are glaring gaps. I may photograph the same branch every autumn because I welcome the re-emergence of its shape . . . but miss the bark every time round. Even bark changes. A sudden downpour and its colours are altered in seconds.

November 15th 2012

Hawthorn leaves.

In spring, hawthorn leaves are a delightful light green.

The blossom (May) comes later and tends to hog attention till the autumn

when the berries (haws) steal the show.

Meanwhile . . . don't forget the leaves!

So . . . a new discipline. I'll look for a way of gathering pictures of individual varieties of plants into separate, easily accessible albums. I tried doing this with elderberry a few years ago by giving it its own blog. The project foundered. And the labels in the side bar aren't a lot of use if help is needed with ID because they link to posts, not pictures.

November 15th 2012

I'm a fan of buddleia bark.
(I'll have to look out old pictures - and add some new.)

I like dead buddleia flowers (like these) - but not when they're live -
their florets are packed so densely, there' something disconcerting about them.

The discipline in this is double. First, it might be boring. Indexing takes a special kind of mind and a lot of time. The other - and this simultaneously enlivens my interest and makes me feel guilty because it highlights the gaps . . . why do I not have more pictures of bark? But . . . . I'll see what I can do . . . and if you have experience of drawing things together in this way and have advice - please do share it if you are willing.

November 15th 2012

Gorse against a blue sky spells summer heat and picnics.

It's grey-sky shape has a starkly different atmosphere.

A sad addendum.

As UK readers (especially, I think, those of us in England) will be all too aware - our Ash Trees are under threat from a fungal infection called Chalara fraxinea (Ash Dieback). Potentially, it can kill almost all our ash trees (Think Dutch Elm Disease).

November 15th 2012

Two Ash Trees.

When the undergrowth pulls back a bit for winter, I'll see if I can get closer

to show you the trunks as well as the top-most leaves!

The picture above shows the edges of the tops of two young ash trees. We are all being asked to keep an eye out for Ash Dieback. This will be a new kind of tree following - a sombre one. Do click this Forestry Commission link . Towards the bottom of the Forestry Commission page, there's a short video. If you have a moment, do, please, watch it. It's both interesting and important. Important because the only way to stop the spread of this disease is by taking out affected trees. Specially interesting beause it shows not only the external signs of the disease (the leaves, the lesions) but what is happening inside the wood too.

* * *

The latest tree following post I know of is
from Gary Web at Compton Verney.
Not only is he following it through its seasons
but a family has adopted it too!

Plane Tree - Autumn 2012

Have you updated your tree?

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P.S. All photos in this post are in colour.

A BLAST OF BLOSSOM

First, an apology. You know how I was saying how useful thorns are in distinguishing hawthorn and blackthorn before their leaves or blossom appear? You know how I have to emphasise that I am an amateur and that I do my best but mistakes are bound to come in from time to time? Do you remember that massive thorn on the blackthorn post? And me saying 'Look at this impressive blackthorn thorn'?

Later than the other trees and bushes nearby . . . instead of blackthorn flowers, hawthorn leaves are now appearing along it.

So . . . I'm withdrawing that post for re-writing and will soon produce an update.

Meanwhile . . .

I've been busy over the Easter holidays. By the time I went out yesterday, the hedgerows had been transformed. Continuity lurches when you have gaps in seeing at this time of year. Blackthorn flowers are almost all either over or getting tatty. Hawthorn trees are not only leafy, their flower buds are swelling.

I'm hurtling along and come across a blast of white blossom. I can't stop to examine it. I'm meeting a friend and I'm late. It could be blackthorn, it could be early damson. (There are damson trees not far away.) They could be daffodils for all that you should trust me when it comes to identification.

There are moments when I think I shouldn't be let loose on the internet. There are others when I'm glad I'm here. Yesterday, while photographing the beginnings of new ivy shoots, a woman stopped to ask what I was doing. We had quite a long conversation. She hadn't noticed the ivy - not in a noticing way. She'd never seen the flowers. She'd not been aware of the berries. It was exciting to talk to her. I think she was excited too by the prospect of seeing them later in the year.

I mentioned too, how for people in other parts of the world, plants which for us are very ordinary are simply unknown and, therefore, interesting. Discovering this, becoming properly aware of this (because after all one knows it in theory) is one of the excitements of blogging. (I don't think I'm over using the word 'excitement'. Noticing plants may not give the adrenaline thrill of winning the lottery but I really do find it exciting - noticing plants 'for myself' for being shown something isn't quite the same.  Being the first to go into a pyramid simply must have been different from going on a guided tour.)

But meeting her reawakened me to how many things we pass without noticing - and what wonderful fun it is to find there are treasure troves of detail on our doorsteps.

Not that anyone could have missed this blossom.

Surely?

What's more - I have no idea whether the ivy bud is for leaves or a flower. The pyramid beckons!

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* * *

The Tree Following Section

The Latest Posts

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From Gardening Ways
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From Walsall Wildlife
A Rotten Place to Live

From Tree Care Tips

Horse Chestnut

and Red Maple

From Patio Patch

Wych Elm Cousins

From In the Company of Trees and Plants

Searching for Colour in a Gray Brown World 

Leavesnbloom

Corylus avellana contorta 'Red Majestic' 

On the Edge Gardening

Naked Beech

If you are following a tree, make sure you 

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I'm Following a Tree

Are You?

A Growing List!

arignagardener

Down by the sea

Flighty's plot

Gardening Ways

Gardens Eye View

Hyde Daily Photo Volume 2

In the Company of Plants

josephinesgarden

Leavesnbloom

Lichfield Lore

Moongazy Girl

On The Edge Gardening

Patiopatch                                          

small matters

solsticedreamer

the blackberry garden

The Wilder Garden

Tree Care Tips

welsh hills again

Willow's Woolly World

Windywillow 

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