MY STUCK FOOT POST FOR AUGUST

You might like to click the picture to see the teasel in the foreground close up.

This is all a rush. Very silly. I dashed out to choose a place for a Stuck Foot Post.

Nettles with their flowers silhouetted against gathering clouds.

I thought I might go to the sea and find sand and shells and seaweed and driftwood and all sorts of plants and objects. It was going to be very interesting and artistic - and we haven't been to the sea for a while. Erosion and cliff falls have seen to that.

But the moment I set out the weather began to glower. I had to choose somewhere to put my feet fast.

I saw some teasels in flower and stopped. I like the sea but I like teasels too.

This little flower was a bit pinker than it looks in the picture.

I grabbed some snaps and hurried home before the rain started.

Initially, I took this to be the flower of the Common Mallow - Malva sylvestris. But I was wrong. It's a Cranesbill. (But of what kind?)  I can never get these two straight! 

Brambles, brambles everywhere!

Blackberries are ripening. Some look deceptively tasty. They aren't yet sweet enough to eat - but there are lots of them this year.

These blackberry flowers were tucked under the hedge.

And when I got home? The rain came in a great squirt - as if someone had turned a hose on and was directing it directly at the windows while throwing pebbles at the same time. It didn't last long - but I'm glad I didn't go to the beach.

The idea of a Stuck Foot Post 

is that you choose a place and put your foot there.

Any old place will do.

You can choose it because it's familiar and you want to know it in more detail.

Or you can choose it at random.

Then you see what you can see.
Without moving your feet. Not once. Not even slightly!

There will be a Stuck Foot Post link box open for a week on Loose and Leafy -

starting on Thursday 31st August.

If you'd like to know more - there's a Page for Stuck Footers

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COMMENT SETTINGS, LINK BOXES AND TREE FOLLOWING

Turkey Oak - Feb. 16th 2014

Gearing up for the full-scale start of Tree Following on 7th March. The list of participants is growing. Several bloggers have already introduced their trees. Some of us (like me!) are still looking around, trying to decide which tree to chose. It's like doing warm up exercises as we approach the blocks.

This slow beginning is good. It gives us time to think about our trees, how much attention we will give them. Will it be an occasional photograph? An in depth focus on the insects which live on them through the year? The development of their fruit from blossom to drop? (Maybe there will be recipes?)

It also gives us time to iron out some wrinkles.

One of the trials of blogging is that the anti-spam settings on Loose and Leafy make it difficult for some to leave comments.

Turkey Oak. Feb. 16th 2014

So why do I not change the settings? - Because nearly all the 'anonymous' comments coming into my email box from other blogs are spam and I don't want to impose this on you. I really have thought about it.

So - this post is to say taking part in Tree Following through Loose and Leafy does not depend on you being able to leave comments.

To let me know you are taking part, you can leave a comment - but you can also email me at

looseandleafy@googlemail.com

and I'll add you to the list.

When the linky box goes up for posts on 7th March it will suggest you leave a comment. This is because it's a free box and that's part of the text included. Ignore it. If the box accepts the URL to your tree following post - well, you're away. We'll be able to find you and read about your tree - and that's what matters.

What if you don't have a blog but would like to take part? That's fine. Email me and, if we can, we'll make space on Loose and Leafy for a photograph of your tree and a paragraph about it every so often.

You might want to follow a tree by posting photos on Twitter. Twitter isn't perfect for pictures but there's no reason why we shouldn't have a list of Tree Tweeters along with the list of Tree Following bloggers.

The pictures on this page are all of a Turkey Oak, taken on 16th February 2014.
This is one of the plants beneath it - taken on the same day.

Have you thought of following a tree by using YouTube? I've experimented a little with this. Here's the link to my YouTube page. It's not very developed - seaweed being brought onto the shore, leaves rustling. Here are birds singing as the sun comes up over one of the trees I've followed. Think about it - how about doing a sound picture of your tree over the year? If you decide to follow your tree that way - let me know and we'll have a list for Tree Following on Film.

I'm Following a Tree

Carole at La Fosse - The House on the Hill - has introduced her magnificent Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) 

And Gill at On the Edge Gardening has chosen a Medlar tree.

Any questions, any suggestions - ask them, make them!

(Incidentally, for those of you new to Loose and Leafy - it's not soley about trees but all sorts of hedgerow plants. Sometimes we look at urban wild plants too - here's the most recent urban plant post - Out on the Town.)

And remember - first Linky Box for full scale Tree Following start up this year will be - 7th March 2014.

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* * *

If you'd like to use the Tree Following motif

on your blog

this is its url

http://tinyurl.com/qaesqpb

THE TROUBLE WITH NETTLES - URTICA DIOICA

Stinging nettles (Urtica Dioica) aren't specially famous for their flowers. This is not surprising for they dangle uninterestingly and herald tattiness. No-one would ever dream of bringing them into the house to look pretty in the middle of a dining table. If the wind hadn't been waggling them about I would have taken their portraits so you could see what I mean. Instead, my memory card has filled with green blur after green blur after green blur and the blurs are are so dreadfully blurry they couldn't even be considered artistic.

New leaves are arriving. New plants. And the wind has played on. But if it were to leave them alone it wouldn't be blowing pollen between male and female flowers and any seeds which managed to form would drop in a pile at their feet instead of being thrown around. The reproductive life of the nettle family would be arrested. Banning the wind in October might, therefore, be a tempting option for those with omnipotence up their sleeves. On the other hand . . . there are those tough, long, yellow roots from which more nettles spring without its help . . . .

But I've managed, at last, to catch a glimpse of seeds on a few standing-still nettles. But just a glimpse. Another time I think I'll chop a few down and take them home and lay them out and photograph them that way . . . but it wouldn't be the same. 

If you'd like to know more about nettles, the University of Wisconsin has dedicated nettle pages for its students.

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