Guess What's Back?

 Got out for a run late afternoon, where the clouds were just beginning to break up after an entirely grey day. 

The run had an objective in mind; to head to the cemetery to see if there are any snowdrops in flower, And sure enough there were! Right where I was expecting, the place they always come into flower first, just the one bunch in flower at the moment, but, they count!

The lake was peaceful, gently rose gold gilded, with the ducks congregating for a feed of grain from a young child. 

The sunset that followed, as I ran along opposite the hospital, was a firey and glorious spectacle. 

Is anything growing where you are?

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 15.12.2024

The Cemetery Bedecked

 Yesterday, before cricket practice - in itself an exercise in futility as the games will probably be rained off again - I took myself for a very gentle run to the cemetery.

It is beautiful, it is peak wildflower there, with the predominant colour being the blue of bluebell and forget me not growing right up to two hundred plus year old gravestones. Buttercup and meadow saxifrage; the last emergences of the season, are now present. and the wild garlic still pungently flowers in its ditch.

It's well worth a pause in my run, on a day that while warmer and dryer than what we'd had before, now had a strong wind that was keeping pollinators out of the air, although I did see a specked wood on the wing. 

Among the beauty, I remembered that this is the worst spring for butterflies I can remember. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 30.04.24

Behold the Crocus Carpet!

 For one week only, the cemetery crocus carpet made its glorious annual re-appearance, decorating the houses of the dead with luxurious splashes of purple and white, and giving a haven for early season pollinators.

They barely seem to last now, made even more ephemeral by the rain falling like an anvil on them just as they reach their peak, a modern day feature of local winters that results in a a chaos of savaged petals and broken stems after a few scant days of glory.

But while they are there, they are stunning.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.02.24

Emergences

 The weather this late winter, as we all know, has been generally horrid, with endless rain and swollen rivers flooding everywhere. 

However, this weekend we have seen very mild temperatures with the occasional absence of showers, so with plenty of flowers now in bloom in the parks and the cemetery, I knew it would be a good time to go bee hunting.

I was rewarded by my first honeybee and bumblebee close encounters in consecutive days. 

It was the castle crocuses the honeybees were enjoying on Saturday, on the wing as the grounds were being archaeologically excavated by the gateway. They looked so fresh and new, and very hungry as they went from flower to flower drinking up the nectar for minutes at a time. 

Today, it was a walk through the cemetery, now carpeted in crocuses as it is - stunningly - every year. As soon as I looked down, a stonking great buff tailed bumblebee queen was working through the flowers, tail as buff as it could be.

It's days like this I wait for from the beginning of October, and to cap it off I was able to enjoy an 8km run. There's life in me yet!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.02.24

A Most Spectacular Display

 There is little I can say about the unbelievable display of crocuses in the cemetery that photographs can't say better.

Suffice to say, it's amazing every year, but this year, it seems especially spectacular. And as ever, its ephemeral beauty will last barely more than a week.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 24.02.23

First Bumbley Bumble of 2023

 I took myself off for a walk this afternoon, on what has surely been the mildest day of the year so far with sun lighting up up the beautiful purple and white crocuses in the cemetery, of which more anon...

Always this is is my favourite time of the year, as regular readers of this blog over the years will know, and at the risk of posting repetitive content, I love to show you the nature landmarks of late winter and spring. 

I'm now getting used to seeing honeybees on the crocuses this February; they seem to have been up and about for a couple of weeks now. But I had not yet seen a bumblebee, and figured the lush crocus crop of the cemetery would be the best place to find one. 

I was frustrated at first, wondering why on earth there wouldn't be a bumble about on a day like this. I had to walk through about three quarters of the cemetery, eyes glued to the ground and being watched quizzically by a number of very chubby squirrels who seem to have wintered extremely well.

And then, lifting its fuzzy body out of a flower cup, was a big buff-tailed bumblebee queen so covered in pollen I initially thought it was a different species. I followed it as it dived into another crocus, and managed to get some photographs as it fed, almost ecstatically. 

Such a cheering sight. I hope you too are starting to see buzzy things on the wing!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.02.23

Winter Walks

 As I said in my last post, ankle or not I need to be getting mobile again without getting too crazy and hurting myself. The weather just is not condusive to pleasure cycling - now that the temperatures have dropped again cycling to work is quite enough thank you! - and I've really missed just walking around listening to Radio 4.

So, as "Counterpoint" with Paul Gambaccini gently quizzing away in my ears, I've wandered the cemetery and the park, photographing flowers, trying to get a photo of the Blue Lake goosander that doesn't make them look like little black dots, and remembering the therapeutic power of walking in nature. 

I intend to continue as the days lengthen. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 18.01.23

Who is First to Bloom in 2023?

 At the weekend, I took myself out on my bike and on foot  - if it wasn't far! - to see if anything was in bloom, especially after that brutal spell of cold weather that although hadn't dropped any snow on the ground, there had been some very hard frosts. 

Of course, there's one location that always seems to have the first flowers emerging, and when I rode off down there on my bike, in the same little patch of ground as ever, snowdrops were out. 

I swear it's always the same bulb that comes up first every year, the first of the little white flowers always seems to be in exactly the same place by the Polish Air Bridge memorial in the cemetery.

I wonder how many years this has been the case - I'm sure I've been finding them in that spot for over ten years or more!

The other place I like to look is in The Friary Gardens, where the aconite grows. I've been down a couple of times, and haven't spotted any little yellow spots of colour under the trees yet. However, they've been beaten into flower by red dead nettle. 

I think it might be a bit early for them yet. 

At work, we have some rather sorry looking daises poking up, but the most vivid sight is not a flower at all. It is the vivid pink coral berries, where a mere couple of months ago there were bees feeding off the bright coral berry flowers 

I will keep you posted - we also seem to be a bit ahead of the rest of you here!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.01.23

Hello Little Lady

 So, this week among the glorious purple and white flowers in the cemetery, on a dull day where I thought I'd see no such thing, my vaguely sharp eye detected a bumblebee making its way low down among the crocuses about 20 metres away. 

Pausing my attempts to attempt to take a rubbish selfie that would impress no-one, I skipped over and found what I was expecting - a buff tailed bumblebee queen, always the first bumble on the wing in the spring.

For a slightly chilly day, the bee was moving and feeding fast among the flowers, and it wasn't easy to get a good shot of it, for which I apologise. It made me glad however, to have had a decent walk over a lazy weekend and to be rewarded for making the effort. 

A very small joy in what is a pretty black time.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 02.03.22