WHY NOT STICK YOUR FOOT?

Wherever you stick your foot you'll find something interesting.
If I hadn't stood still, I might never have noticed Bittersweet
(Solanum dulcamara)
hiding in pampas grass.
Bittersweet, like Deadly Nightshade is related to potatoes and tomatoes.

Rashly, I said I'd that on the 21st August I'd include a link box for 'Stuck Foot Posts'.

If I hadn't left my foot in the same place I wouldn't have noticed
a small buddleia hiding behind an equally small contoneaster.
(I think it's a form of contoneaster - but maybe it isn't?)

Why rashly? Because first I went away. Then I stripped everything off my computer so couldn't use it till enough was reinstalled to get it going again.

Standing beside a hawthorn three and looking up,
haws and sky catch the eye.
But there's gorse beyond.

And I think my heart and brain got left behind in a field in Wales so I'm a bit distracted and thinking I'd like another holiday.









But I'd like to encourage you to join me by sticking your foot for Wednesday - or some time in the following days - hence this post.

A stuck foot post is one in which you choose a place to stand, put your feet firmly in one place and see what you can see.

It can be a place chosen at random or a place well loved. What's best is to find what you wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't put your foot there.

Below the hawthorn so many plants I could have written a post by choosing nothing
more than one square foot of ground.
Prominent in this picture is a teasel plant. (Dipsacus.)
They're odd, teazles.
In their first year they stay small. In their second they grow tall.
And it seems you can spell their name any old way you like.
I like the 'teasle' way. Which is probably the wrongest.

There's more information on the special page for Stuck Footers. If you'd like to be added to the page as a blogger who occasionally writes a Stuck Foot post - let me know and I'll add a link to the page.

Stuck Foot link boxes will be sprinkled through the year.

Here are the dates
August 21st
November 21st
March 21st

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Other News

There are two new links on the 'Identifying Things' page.

SEDUMS (Rebecca's Bird Gardens) - Sedums can be found as much growing in the wild as in gardens and their variety seems almost endless. Try looking on walls and between the stones in car-park gravel. (I was inspired to look around for Sedum information by Amanda's post about urban wild plants - Urban Plants at the Town Hall.

BRITISH BUGS (Shield Bugs and Co.) This is a site still under construction but there's already much there. The photos are wonderful. The creatures extraordinary. Many beautiful. (The British Bugs site is run by Tristan Bantock. You can find him on Twitter at - @BritishBugs 

* * *
Here's a Stuck Foot Post I wrote in July.

If you'd like to join me in writing a Stuck Foot Post for August . . .

there will be a link box on the 21st.

It will open at 7am (UK time) and close on September 1st at 7pm.

Loads of time to take part.

Easy to remember - 21st to the 1st.

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