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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WOBBLING IN THE WIND - A STUCK FOOT POST

For my Stuck Foot Post I thought I'd stick my foot on hard sand in the shelter of a vertical though not enormously tall cliff. This part of the south coast of England sticks out into the sea and on this day (15th January 2015) the western side was being beaten by big waves while about a mile and a half away (where I was) they were lapping gently against the beach. None the less, the plants and I were wobbling around in the wind - those which poked up above the cliff's shelter were thrashing.

The tide was going out and little streams were pouring out of the rocks and earth across a narrow strip that is mostly covered in sea water at high tide. With it going out, I was safe. It would have been a stupid place to stand otherwise.

I don't understand the sun. I would have expected it to be further round to the right. But, there it was, glaring in more from the south than I had anticipated. Or perhaps I'd turned more corners than I thought. A few years ago I bought a compass to help me decide where to go for what pictures but my belt, my mobile phone, all sorts of external metals interfered so it was a waste of time. I'd sit in a cafe and watch the needle spin round while I drank my coffee. The sun is more predictable. I may not know precisely where it will be but I generally have enough of an idea to know where to go and when. But I like silhouettes and this one was romantic.

Fortunately, the sun being a bit wester than I'd anticipated it better lit what I wanted to see. Swinging round to the right you can see the rocks I would have been sitting on if I weren't needing a good swivel. (I was very assiduous about this stuck-footedness so you can admire my flexibility in being able to get a 360 degrees view. (Admire, admire!)

These composite rocks confuse me. There are places where broken concrete has been used to defend the cliffs from the sea. And rocks from other places have been brought in to do do the same - which confuses a confusion of geologies. In this rock you can see loads of what I take to be oyster shells embedded in it. These could be new. (There are oyster beds near by.) They could be Roman. (Romans liked oysters.) They could be fossils. To me with my shining ignorance one looks just like another.

On one of the rocks was a piece of blue material. Something very odd is going on round here. I've found blue material in bushes too. They are different patterns - plain or plaid - but always blue. Who is scattering scraps of blue material round the place? And why?

Looking up from the rocks. Trees. I was expecting willow. This is not willow! So what is it?

A bit had fallen on a rock.

But higher up - would you not say these are willow leaves? They were moving in the wind so much it was hard to take their portraits. But then . . . it's the wrong time of year for willow leaves . . . isn't it? Well this cliff is a mixture of soft rock and earth so I wasn't going to climb up to see. It would probably have come down. Being squashed wouldn't be fun.

Twist a bit further. What do we have here?

Sea defences in the form of walls built at the bottom of people's gardens. Ivy binding the steep earthy bit, reeds along the top then . . . a little hawthorn tree would you say?

I don't know what the pipe is sticking up from the sand but I took its picture. Not only was it photogenic but it stood still. I reckoned the post deserved at least one photo in focus.

Swinging back the other way to where I started - a video. Nothing much moves. The boat pier and the boats stay still. (They have been brought out of the water for the winter.) But you can hear the little waves. You can hear the wind. You can hear gulls. And the sound that sounds like birds twittering isn't birds but the boats' halyards rattling in the wind. They are like wind-chimes. A sea-side orchestra.

(At the end, the camera swoops down to the rocks we began with.)

As a separate issue . . .
If you would be interested in recieving
and reviewing this book - see this post.

There you are; a Stuck Foot post. I wobbled. I swivelled. But my feet didn't move. Not even a centimetre. You too could write a Stuck Foot Post. ? ? ? 

If you'd like to leave a link, there will be a box open from 21st - 25th January. There are currently fewer Stuck Footers than there are Tree Followers but those of us who stick our feet for posts get a lot out of it (I think!). (Well I do!)

All photos in this post  (and the video too) were taken on the afternoon of 15th January 2015.

For more info. - there's a Page for Stuck Footers. Do join us!

And last week I Stuck My Foot in a Garden - you might like to take a look at that post too.

Stuck-Foot Link Box

7am on 21st to 7pm on 25th January 2015

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