Nature

Plant life, animal life, and happenings

Comments

Your Writings are stunning especially NATURE ones which are delicious. -Richard

Richard L. Provencher

A gorse seed

Popping pod propels the seed, each has little tasty ‘lump’: ant out foraging to feed those within its nest, can clasp, – jaws like claws can grip and grasp
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Ants

The extraordinary little ant with tunnels underground, or linking up the many rooms within a leafy mound. Their heads are big with strong sharp jaws, their waists are very tight;

Beauty on a Dungheap

Bobbing flight, dips out of sight, and up – ‘peep bo!’ then duck below. Perching on the pile of muck, wagging tail perfect stance to give a chance for photo-shot.
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Bird-feeder Drama

Big fat pigeon sees birds upon the feeder, stalks around below like the avian leader, poking round for pickings, quick to espy ‘crumbs from the table’ when they float from high.

Car journey, Sat 2/2/12

The air is sharp and bitter, and icy branches glitter. The dome above pale blue and clear and cold, well-sugared views around the car unfold, gaunt trees reach up like scratchy brooms to sweep,
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Cloudy Cameos (IP)

Mystery of misty moisture: shadows scurry, shower flurry, filmy fluid falls to earth fuelling food’s future growth. ******* Herringbone and candy floss – patterns picturesque across
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Cherry

Conkers

Conker, lying on the ground, are you waiting to be found – while you’re hard and shiny still – by a little boy who will hoard, delight in you, but may bore a hole so he can play

Creeping past the equinox

Greening hawthorn, lush thick meadow, willow tinged with greenish-yellow, from the earth now leaves emerging softly-edged mosaic-like covering for the bank, as yet anonymous,

Creepy-crawlies

I do like bugs*, and snails and slugs, but slugs are slimey to hold in your hand, and bugs are tickley, and may defend themselves, by a nip or sting,
Cherry

Cultivate or Strangulate (IP)

(of gardens, real and allegorical)
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Daffodil Bands

… so successfully announcing …
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Essential Sunshine and Showers (IP)

Lying, listening to the rain, welcome, restful soft refrain. Water falling, filtering down and filling spaces in the soil: seeds soon swelling … reaching for the sun …

Is there a moral … ? (IP)

A fable lazy lizard lived in the valley of the Lugg; too lazy to reach out to catch a nice nuitritious bug. He grew more weak, less slick and sleek – when danger was perceived
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The Heatwave (IP)

It melted the tarmac, and buckled the rails, it dried up the pond, but the well never fails, it bleached out the lawn, left the farmers forlorn until a breath of a breeze
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The Times they are A-Changing (IP)

… The stuffy indoor atmosphere, and sluggish thoughts and tension escape into the stratosphere and clear the comprehension …
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Trickling trick

Life’s biochemistry, infinite mystery: but we hear imaginative history of decay in reverse, arising complexity: ‘So it has been’, some say – a thing never seen:

Disasters

One day there won't be any more disasters

The Male Mandarin Duck!

A colourful drake!
Cherry

Moschatel, or Townhall Clock (Adoxa moschatellina)

Tiny ‘Townhall Clock’: pale, slight and delicate, each face a duplicate, – miniature so rarely seen, dainty structure, tender green, flowers arranged on slender stalk
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Is it a butterfly or … ?

Is it a butterfly or … is it a moth?

Honey Ants

waiting until their needed!

Lady’s Smock (Milk-maids or Cuckoo-flower)

Gangly stems on damp clay-ey verge, sun-bleached smocks like a milky surge of many small flowers, lilac-pale; Milk-maids wave in a soggy vale. Lower leaf-stalks with leaflets rounded,

Primroses

Clusters of smudges pale yellowy-cream, dappled on banks and in woods, in between the trees, on the ground, soft and delicate smiles, rosettes of fresh leaves, climate gentler awhiles.

Seashore

— busy land of extremes
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Mysterious Lichens

Fluffy tassels smoky-green …

The Great Wren Escape

courtesy of Springwatch 2011

The Limitations of Science to study the past

Science is investigation of recorded information, experimenting, testing theories, giving thought to awkward queries, and alternative suggestions, never jumping to conclusions.
Cherry

Seals

Smooth and shy, and hard to spy peeping from the water. Watch them gliding, swimming by – agile under water. When they leave the sea they heave – pull with each front flipper,

Queen Wasp's thoughts … during early May

I slept through the cold in a snug little nook. I woke, drank some nectar, then flew for a look, – to scrape scraps of wood from a post or a pole,

The Great Delusion

“Everyone believes it! – it must be true!” “Scientists have proven it!” – No!, that they cannot do! some may feel that it fits quite well,

Quirky Meadow Saffron

(seen, Aug 2009 Merbach Hill)
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Cherry

Snowdrop

Bulb which grows when cold – two spears protrude and elongate, – the year’s first noticeable growth from still, apparent death of winter's chill. A single stem extending soon,
Cherry

Pussy Willows

Slim and silky, silvery slippers, furry-ears peep, pushing open brown bud scales on Sallow branches, satin catkin flowers ripen. Those on male shrubs soon show yellow –

The purple emperor butterfly

The purple emperor butterfly lives in the canopy, quite high; no flowers up there with nectar sweet, so what is there for it to eat? When aphids suck the sugary sap

The Weasel (IP)

based on a Welsh poem called ‘Y Gwenci’ (The Weasel) by R Williams Parry, that I liked very much (content and poetry) in my childhood. I stood transfixed (not knowing I was watched)

Lesser Celandine

Shining yellow celandines (sun reflected as it shines): mass of stars on hearts deep-green (lovely background of the scene – leaves with softly wavy edges,

Springing Back to Life — nature (IP)

a patchwork collage through spring, from verse already posted

From a window

screeching kerfuffle …

Woodland blue

Sea of vivid blue, trees above with new leaves emerging through swelling buds; and cream windflower clusters seem foaming on the swells – woodland flooded with bluebells.

Evening Light after Rain

Glittering evening sunlight casts banding shadows, stark contrasts – golden gleam, and flowers vivid. Earlier, skies were sombre, livid – hours of drizzle, torrents rushing,
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Rabbits! (IP)

Unwelcome explosion! a plague population: they ate the fruit, and nibbled each shoot, they cropped the corn, great swathes were shorn: the farmer’s annoyed, his labour destroyed.

Floods

River rushing, water rises, flood-weight pushing, – power surprises, moving cars and caravans; tree comes down, nestlings drown, … but towns in turmoil …

Garden Bindweed

It winds, and binds, entangling, and strangling … insidiously, inconspicuously …

The Wood-Wide Web

No world-wide net to gather ‘facts’ … inside the soil unseen it spreads

Harebells

Splashes of harebells waft and sway – sky-blue skirts in the grass at play! Deep-red foxgloves stand erect – sentinels the troop protect. Vivid in the evening light,

Silver swish

Glimpse of silver, swish and skitter, fish-like darting, wriggling slither; little harmless insect flitter, – do you cringe, or jump or shiver? Disliked lodgers little matter

Night noises (IP)

With a sniffle and a snuffle, and a sudden snort, the silences of darkness are rare and short, there’s a giggle and a gurgle, and a low long growl, a hiss, a hum, a murmur,
Cherry

The Skylarks Rise Again

When farmers sowed their crops in spring the skylarks were abundant – … untroubled by a growing crop, or mowing chop, or fox or stoat, they’re nestled on …
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Cherry

Tree-line, rewindings

from Pentathlon Leaning bent upon his stick, he gazed upon his tree, stark, – struck by lightning a while, now gnarled, its history in his mind unfurled …

Living Tapestry

From lowland lake to moorland bleak, in wood and hedge, high mountain peak, on roadside verge, and rocky shore, through cracking concrete factory floor (disused), and shielded city nook:

Sudden Snow

silently, softly, smothering, enveloping, quieting, soothing, hushing, confining all of the noise and the rushing. Flakes cease from falling, children erupting – chance of rare playground,

The calm after the storm (IP)

A whirling storm brought battering harm. A sudden stillness, quaking calm – glittering drops of rain left hanging, tiled rooftops askew, bits dangling; and tentatively emerging

Watching Raindrops

Plip! plop! watch the water drop … … sight and sounds that soothe … circles interlocking, mesmerising dreamy rocking, lulling lullaby.

City Traces (IP)

The nest of a falcon, pigeons galore, squirrels collecting and burying their store. But we miss the high hills, and the countryside sound, and pine...

Autumn Hush and Dash (IP)

Summer sward now lies forlorn neglected, soggy autumn lawn, mounds of rotting apples, slushy on the ground, a bounty, mushy (crawling insects,...

Wood Sorrel

Early spring wood floor-cover: trifoliate leaves, each leaflet heart-shaped – unlike clover sometimes fold along their middle (shape pyramidal), at...
Cherry

Losses and Gains: Clywedog* (IP)

*pronounced Cluh- wed - og a valley flooded in 1967 by construction of the tallest mass concrete dam in Britain Lost farms, lost homes, a harrowing...

Xerocoles* (IP)

*(a term some seem to use for animals adapted to live in the desert – with the heat and scarcity of water) … The desert lizard goes, too fast to burn its toes …
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Poem of the week

Slowly emerging, January to March

Bleached and scruffy verges, scrawny, thorny, de-fleshed hedges; a flush and blush of green suffuses the roadside edges, while the hedges’ twigs grow...

Cowslip

Little standard lamps wave softly, tiny chandeliers, loftily bearing golden, glowing tops buttery pashmina cups; motorway’s monotonous verges...

Visiting Slimbridge

[birds, ducks, swans … and …!]

Inspiration Point, Bryce Canyon, Utah (IP)

spectators eyes inhale the sight … and ‘oohs’ exhaled from inspiration, and ‘aahs’ of awe – lungs’ expiration …

Nuthatch

Stubby black dagger beak, stuck to sooty bandit eyestrip on head which merges with its body – elongated bulb-like bird, plump, sleek, steely-blue...

Snake's-Head Fritillary

Flocks of wafting chequered bells mauve or white – and on the latter’s dress the chequered pattern lies a watermark impress. Abundant, when in spring...

A monkey nut drama

The squirrels were busy kept coming to bury monkey nuts found far away. A bird table’s wealth embezzled with stealth? the drama was watched day by...
Cherry

Long-tailed Tits, or …

Hedge Mumruffin , Fuffit , pinkish fluffy ball Long-tailed pie , Poke Pudding , twittering, chattering call. Acrobatic flits, dart around the shrubs...

Hedgehogs

Fat little snufflers searching through leaf litter …

Dull-day Lamps

Daffodils are glowing though the sky is glowering. I’m glad that they don’t close …
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Morphing Treescapes

The view of trees so gaunt and grey along the road, is giving way to softening tinge of green transforming … … until we see fresh beauty in autumn colours … and silhouettes on winter skyline …
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Marsh Marigold

Splash of giant ‘buttercups’ – King Cups bold, on the dark and boggy bank, glossy Marigold. … blazen in the sunshine – loud contagious laughter.
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Cherry

A ‘Mayfly’ Day … (IP)

– early evening swarm above the stream – mating mayflies shimmer; with the setting sun eggs descend, mayfly die, and are no more until … nymphs hatch...

Prickles Please (Poetry Monthly)

The last hedgehog in Herefordshire ? … only 1 in 5 people in the UK have ever seen a hedgehog in their garden. No wonder – 95% lost since the 1950s...
Cherry

A Bleak Interlude

Dark, bleak day – drizzle and downpour, nipping out-door … but tomorrow … ?

Fly Free For a Day!

… free from all that pressure for a short and flight-y future:
Cherry

Flowing … (Poetry Monthly)

The water seeps and flows through earth and rocky cleft, down narrow gullies flows, through fields meanders, grows …

Puffin's puffling

Eyes of surprise, a freak-striped beak can’t squeak or speak with those fish in its beak – stowed in a row with their heads in a fringe for the...
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Cherry

Stumpy Toddy (Wren)

phenomenal the sound … huddle in numbers to protect from killing cold, by cuddle
Cherry

Dumped Gold

(seen yesterday, when parking behind a Care Home) Neglected, thrown down out the back: grubby, dumped, forgotten sack, bathed in sunshine, soaked by...

The Green Blush

Roadside curtains, dusty dry, of tangled trees – when driving by through March they still seemed spent and sere, but now we’ve watched green blush...
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Drizzle and Dandelions

Driving in the drizzle, dripping trees obscured by mizzle, road awash, and frequent splash, sodden grass and swirls of rain – wipers swish on ‘fast’...

The Handkerchief Tree*

Surprise amongst the trees – waving hankies fluttering in the breeze – no artificial ‘prayer’ flags these – doves shine shimmering in the sun? …

Springwatch!

… wave your wings to say, ‘Goodbye’ …
Cherry

The Old Oak Chair

… the hidden, tunnelled maze of subways down below.

All aboard! the country bus

[The BBC slow real-time country bus ride] Lovely slow ride, we seem to glide … no dash, no tension, no road rage, no rush.

Two mornings

[first morning:] Veil of mizzle, myopic vision, hemmed in, dozy … oppressing, depressing. [next morning:] Shell-blue sky, all’s a-glitter … de-stressing.

Watching, not touching!

I do like bugs*, and snails and slugs, but slugs are slimey to hold in your hand, and bugs are tickley, and may defend themselves, by a nip or sting...
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Autumn Tingeing

Sunshine glints on autumn tints:

Autumn Colours (i)

Green sugar factories now dismantled with approaching cold …

The ‘Icecoming’

Tall-shaders shed … and floating feather-rain …

Frost and Sun

…their frosty shadows shrink

Fog!

A milky shroud, damp cloud, muting, hushing, smudgy trees emerge …I feel enclosed …

On Winter Bleakness

A sodden, dreary, weary gloomy day; cloud-ceiling low and leaden …. decorations delicate, sublime … breathtaking sunset fire …
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Earth Colours

Dark brown, white … green up … spattered, patterned red, yellow, pink, blue … yellowing … (a burst of red, rust, gold) … earth-brown … the next green flourish.
Cherry

Awakening!

Stark, dry brown trees and hedges: a warm green blush spreads, gradually suffuses – astonishing expanding leaves unfold, push, squirt from tiny lumps...

Spring has sprung (at last)

Daylight lengthening, sunlight strengthening, weakening winter’s grip, but temperatures dip … shout spring has sprung!
Cherry

Early April Flowers

White wood anemones, bright-wide in the sun sparkling sprinkled on the woodland floor, while bluebells prepare their blue spring haze; …

Short Evening Stroll

Sharp air, evening sunlight …

Variety

Not too cold, and not too hot, breath of cool air when we’ve had a lot of beating sun for days and days – gardens need rain for the flowers to blaze...
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Cherry

Ch-ch-ch-ch

Chuffed at change in chiff-chaffs chicks … (based on a comment by Michaela Strachan on Springwatch this year)
Cherry

Evening Song

Rich, deep trilling, chuckles, gurgles twirling …
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Cherry

Soothing

A quiet, sheltered, hidden glade with dappled light, and ample shade; in days of scorching summer heat, the soothing green a filtering screen of...

Reaching

(photo 1) A stricken tree, its bones survive – grey, honed they reach, and taper high to poke the blue, like twisting roots upon the sky.

Reflective whimsey

(photo 2) Autumn colours in the pond, high blue screens the fish beyond, swimming in the depth below; will the sky soon overflow down the weir,...
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Impediments to reaching the treasure

Thorny tentacles entrap feet or legs to tangle, trip … little juicy treasure perch just beyond precarious reach.

Micromys minutus

Bright bundle of gingery fur climbing, clambering dextrously up and down and through the tall grass and reed stalks …

Evening Sky

High sky gold touched fluff …
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Autumn Beech Leaves

… shining beech trees …

The humble …

Slithery, wriggly soil aerators, food for blackbirds, badgers, raptors …

Oak Apple

Oak apple rosy, nursery cosy: wasp larva fed free by host oak tree.
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weather whatever

Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, whatever the weather, wherever …

Winter Wonderland

Trudging through the snow – like royal icing fresh – sinking softly at each step … will they have to stay the night? will replacements reach? …

Winter Wonderland (2) Sunshine

Blue sky and sunshine, soft snow glitters; warm light, air cold. Walking into town, hard-packed pavement centres – safer foothold on the snowy edges...
Cherry

"Goblin Gold"

(or 'Schistostega pennata' ) A disused rabbit hole – what will it hold? about a foot inside, maybe some – goblin gold! In semi-darkness, shines a...
Cherry

Morning mist lifts

misty … mist rising … sunshine sparkles
Cherry

Brown February

Brown etched trees scratch the grey, scattered brown sere seeds still hang suspended here and there; balls of mistletoe, coloured greenish-yellow by...
Cherry

Mesmerised

[This is a revision of a piece I posted some years ago, and based on a Welsh poem called ‘Y Gwenci’ (The Weasel) by R Williams Parry, that I liked very much (content and poetic skill) in my childhood.] “I stood transfixed, just stared ahead, I could not move my gaze or tremble, shake …

Growth Spurt

Springing forward to the sun … embryonic leaves enlarging through protective scales emerging from their winter hide-away now they seek the light of day …
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Trumpeting

Bare bones stand lifeless, gaunt and sere – the wood is dark and drear. … a yellow blast is trumpeting from sparkling gold that spring is back –

Spring Yellows

Even when the day is dark primroses clump on the bank, softly smile, and deep in the wood by the muddy stream marsh marigolds glow a deep butter...

Dandy Lions

Dandy lions in a crowd, golden laughter lines the road; yellow pom-poms dot the lawn … ‘See this garden, Mummy, can’t we these lovely flowers plant?'
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Cherry

Living with …

We get armour-plated armadillos, miniature; at night-time slugs find squeeze-through aperture – stretching, slithering with slimy, shiny trails – ugh...

May Sky Melody

Burbling song resounds around the dome bubbling, erupting exultantly two little lungs breathe in, pour out in synchronous duet bursting, echoing over...

Treasured Mud Oasis

Turning vehicles have lowered little carpark’s centre, scoured – heavy rain brings spreading puddle, slowly shrinking to the middle – irritation, but...
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Identification – non-native?

Seeds to attract nectar-loving wildlife … search our many flora books … maybe?
Cherry

Brightness without burning

Sitting sheltered in the shade, Leafy filters cool the skin, soothe the eyes, and thoughts within …
Cherry

Our golden, fiery ball

Boldly arcing across the blue, rivers a-glitter, sparkle anew, colours awakened, vivid the scene (– moonlight just paints with a silver sheen), rays...
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Of Limpets & the Ebb and Flow of Stress

(Littoral life) … inter-tidal ecoZone – metaphorically
Cherry

Storm

Rain ground-pounding lashing, lightning flashing, booming sound of thunder crashing – winds howling gales bashing rifting, lifting; water standing...
Cherry

Inter-tidal life

This was written for my children long ago, to try to capture the underwater scene change. I posted it some time ago as simply ‘Seashore’, but thought it was worth reposting for the August topic of Poetry monthly.
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Quince

Misshapen shiny pear with clinging fluffy hair, bright yellow, perfume sweet – too hard and tart to eat raw – flesh cut and chopped cooks, mushes...
Cherry

Autumn Splash

A final fling from flavonoids, and …
Cherry

Cosmos

Chirpy, Cheeky …

Cheeky chipmunk’s cheek-pouch cache … bright-eyed fat-face packing, stacking winter stock.
Cherry

3 Wintry Haiku

wilted world … friends foregather… Snow, softly …
Cherry

Bare beauty

Trees with costume windswept, lost, stretch their branches sculpted, – bare and beautiful, upthrust, from grounded trunks, well-rooted – earth-bound branches …
Cherry

Pitch Black

How often have you ‘seen’ full darkness of the night? … running, stumbling, helpless, humbling …
Cherry

Avocet

So elegant …
Cherry

Snowdrops

Pure pearls emerge from winter’s earth, out of decay and wilting drabness, dearth of colour, life, growth …

wintering in warm Britain …

Turnstones – not shown in photo!
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Seasons Connect

… The sunshine weak … ’til seeds awake … the seeds awake …
Cherry

The fruit of the elm

That favourite, lovely shade of lemon-green patterning an end of April shell-blue sky, pale posy bunches, taut tissue coin-wings …
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Cherry

Speedy Connections

… so much in the blink of an eye, or a flicker of thought.
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Mistletoe

Orchard trees bare of their leaves … with these tangled green orbs we now see suspended dressing the winter skeletons; these squatter plants with …

Unseasonal Hail!

Under fire from pelting ice granules, like gravel chucked, crunching underfoot – soon melts, sun shines, briefly.
Cherry

Golden Blast at the Roadside

Sudden spillage on the verges, orchard, lawns – molten gold explosions, splashes, brilliant swarms: dandelions’ moment, reflecting sudden sunshine...
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Bog Brilliance

Dark and dank and waterlogged – … secluded haunt of otter shy, sheltered from intrusions idle – sunshine flag gives indication, … no invitation to wander pleasantly up yonder … enjoy my lemon brilliance …

Ethiopian de/re-forestation

They cleared the forests to grow more food … Arboreal ‘islands’ remain … believing they are stewards of God’s creation … maybe soon ‘islands’ will expand to link up once more
Cherry

Black Taff – FreshTaff

early 1980s On the bridge high over the river Taff a little girl drops her hankie, by mistake – down, down – it floats ahead (no Pooh-sticks...
Cherry

Autmn's faces

Autumn – a time of change and chills. Sometimes a glowing summer glimpse … sometimes a sodden grey …
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Harvest!

Apples galore, trees shaken to pour fall flood …
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November Bloom

Appealing petals– delicate curves, blended shading, soft shapes, bloomed touch-texture.
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Robin’s Pincushion

beautfiul colourful rose bedeguar gall … 'save whallop' …
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Cherry

An Obliging Treecreeper

What’s that skittering up the tree? – brown as the bark, so hard to see. … – it seemed to patiently wait until we were suited and done – then …
Cherry

Chill

Roadside shorn of colour, bleak, waiting for the sun to break through the misty veil to cheer, waiting …
Cherry

Storm

Whooshing, whirling. pounding wind, rushing powerfully, wild, tearing branches, tiles, and pushing, loosening roots and toppling, crushing; rainfall...

Dennis in Herefordshire

[Sunday, Monday] Dennis passing, rainfall less – though …

Trumpeting!

They’re out! a golden shout …
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Cherry

Chlorophyll Green

Capturing sunlight the leaves to power their multiplication for shade from shower or heat of noon-light intense, so bright: the soft, soothing screen...

Signs of Spring 1)

Bursting out of tiny bud, stretching up tinged red, greening in the sunlight – power for growth.
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Signs of Spring 2)

Hardly noticeable, tiny flowers: if the sawflies don’t arrive and munch (none came last year, so hopefully no cocoons in the soil – must remember to...
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Signs of Spring 3)

Even in those little tended, sun shines on the garden flower bursts, and in the dead wood floors scattered primroses peep.

Signs of Spring 4)

New life resting, nourishment close by, – or gamboling with the other newborn, zestful infants thrilling with their energy, and thus strengthening...
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Signs of Spring 5)

Magnolia by street light. So strange those waxy, marble tulip-like-orbs delicate, easily spoilt by frost, that emerge from strange buds on leafless...
Cherry

Signs of Spring 6)

The gentle greening of the weeping willow by the industrial site, spiky catkins hang too, hardly noticed among the trailing leafy stems.
Cherry

Signs of Spring 7)

Star-like white flowers of blackthorn, sloe, sprinkled, sparkling on leafless hedge branches; greening of hawthorn, May-tree, with tight-flower-bud...
Cherry

Signs of Spring 8)

Ground Ivy, (not really an ivy!) the leaves always there creeping in the leaf litter, (go reddish brown in strong sunlight) but studded with such...
Cherry

Signs of Spring 9)

Graceful ‘greyhound’ stretching twigs, firm, sooty buds – late to open – before the leaves appear, see first the bursting flowers’ purple froth, and...
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Cherry

Signs of Spring 10)

Day’s Eye: One of the earliest to respond to the turn of the seasons, it’s beauty undervalued, bright white stars glitter in the sunshine, setting...
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Cherry

Signs of Spring 11)

Promise of berries for winter red, for feeding the cold-weather birds, but some will be picked with their prickly leaves – broad waxy leaves for...

Aaron’s Rod (Mullein)

Striking spike shoots up from the woolly furry star-like pile of leaves on the wasteland floor … surprise and laughter among the scrub and stones!
Cherry

Unmown ‘lawns’ – plant conglomeration

Golden ‘Cat’s Ears’ flourishing, where drought and soil unnourishing has left the grass short, yellowing … but on the other lawn, abundance, of variety – self-heal, cinquefoil and clover daisies, moss …
Cherry

Well-connected

Two legs that carry me around, two arms … my eyes say, ‘Run!’ and legs get the message, and even …
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Film in the night sky

[from our garden, north Herefordshire 11/8/20] A realm lights up in the sky momentarily, between cloud mountains: gone in a flash, but reappearing...
Cherry

The answer to ‘nature deficit disorder’

out into free therapy, and don't deprive children
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Dog’s Mercury

Emerging through the littered leaves of the woodland floor …
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Wild Rose …

pink blush of beauty climbing the hedges … fragile, fleeting ….
Cherry

Out of safety to please

Cosy bulbs lie safe below, spikes extend … white drop droops to shine and shiver …
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Transformation!

Tired, muddy woods and gardens dead leaves rotting, brown stems wilting, cloud oppressing daylight weak: we’re glad of warmth in bright within...
Cherry

River in Spate

Downpour falling river filling spilling tumbling … the ocean vast at last.
Cherry

Contrast focussing thought

If we hadn’t sat though winter drear would the snowdrops rouse such cheer? Would the …
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White stars and meadow bells

Woodland stars … Rich yellow cuplets …Fairy-skirt cowbells mauve …
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Hawthorn

White May bouquet, tumbling in the hedge, pattern delicate, exquisite: white petals, pale green centres, red anther spots, (sometimes the petals rich...
Cherry

Crisis Moment

Battle in the blood: hostile invaders immobilised, stabbed, or eaten …crisis as invaders beaten …
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Essential Cycle

There’s a crowd of us here where we’re forming a screen shading and cooling the place I have been; soon we will bunch – each group falling …
Cherry

The Wind in the Willows

The wind in the willows … buzzing and teeming …winter remembrances picture …
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Cherry

Complicated lives of the little creatures!

…build retreats on rocks and vegetation with … skilfully spin a fine silk net, all set … eco-engineer …
Cherry

Trees

Gnarled roots extending, gripping, stabilising the soil branches lifting, spreading leaves to shade and shelter, exchange gases, refreshing the...
Cherry

Some January colour

Cloudy patterns in the sky, sinking sun can touch, apply hues of red, a tinge of fire – colour that can cheer inspire when the daytime views are dark...
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Cherry

One-leaf therapy

Even in winter you can look at a leaf soothing green and patterns seen of veins and texture, the varieties and subtleties of nature can bring relief...
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Cherry

And then there is …

[ A slight edit of an old one] A whirling storm … until — it was suddenly still …
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Warm welcome

sparkles, soft smiles, and strident heralds along the lanes
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Poem of the week

Blossom

Billowed dresses, pure snow-white … specks of gold wave …
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Cherry

The wonderful wild bells!

… deep hue, glowing bells gently waving, … (so unlike the Spanish burly, sturdy, stand-up stiff and straight garden ones …
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Cherry

Competition

Goosegrass shoots up clinging, climbing choking, smothering the hedge …
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Puff and scatter!

Beautiful sphere of fairy parachutes to puff and fly away and one infect a sward’s smooth place with bursting taproot strong and long establishing...
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Gold cherry

All Seasons' Refuges

Into the woods in the springtime … in the summer … in winter, and each time come out more ready
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Welcome sound

Lullaby rain: gentle rhythm pattering droplets’ refrain softly strafing the thirsty earth soaking, hydrating wetting the wilting all that was waiting...
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Cherry

Herefordshire Harvest

Juicy harvest: fruit galore how the rosy apples pour – filling juice and cider store: gathered, squeezed and pulped before winter comes when fruit...
Cherry

Shiny treasure

Spikey case around soft mattress cushioning the conker’s fall shining polished horse-chestnut ball copper gloss that brightens up child’s gaze of...
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Cherry

Field Bindweed

Little pink and white soft striped trumpets ‘necklaces’ brightening up the verge like marsh-mallow treats dotted here and there smiling, skitteriing...
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Preparation

Cooler days dimmer light sap retracted, out of sight; recall of food from leaves (flesh shrunk – leaf stems sealed leaves wither, dehydrated...
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Aging Glow

Rosy glow in old age appearing …
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Cherry
Poem of the week

Autumn carpets

Autumn carpets don’t last long, bright colour splashes turn to brown then once more the trees get battered by gales, remaining leaves released and...
Cherry

Temperate December, variations

Dark, mild … dripping trees … wan white sun … stillness. Whirling whiteness … Bright sun, azure sky … vivid dark shadows … Downpour crashing …
Cherry

Light-Cycle

December weak light, January, bleak light, spring light increasing: warm, life-awakening … never none – … but never too far, deep-freezing, never too near, frizzling.
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January (northern hemisphere)

So much bleak and weak and waiting, so much dark and stark, deflating, but see … so soon will come a colourful time, a warmer clime.

"15 minute walk to nature for all" aim

How far must you walk for a sight of greenery to touch, roam, relief from just concrete scenery? Such privilege for many with gardens, and town’s end...
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Graceful Uplifting

Like a chrysalis, bud breaks shoot bursts out like a butterfly, the leafllets slowly expand, open out like the butterfly’s creased-up wings, to form...
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The ‘Miracle Fruit’* …

… contains ‘miraculin’, surprising molecule that binds to the sweet-detecting taste buds on the tongue, changing them so that for a while sour things...
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Cherry

Dramatic Sky

Threat and promise intermixed …
Cherry

Natural Décor

White van spatter-patterned … lichens … encrusting …
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Cherry

June Roadsides

The leggy surge of waving cowparsley obstructing the view for drivers on the lanes is wilting, the view clearing; now there’s the sudden surprise...
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Cherry

Colour Drought

Winter raw … flame of red … drops of blood.
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Cherry

chlorophyll

The green that can trigger … [last week's IP]
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Can't escape!

Quivering bunch of leggy legs imprisoned, cannot climb the slippery slope …
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Cherry

Drizzle

… muslin mizzle …
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Gold cherry

The sounds of rain

Rain ground-pounding lashing, lightning flashing booming sound of thunder crashing – winds howling gales bashing rifting, lifting, water standing,...
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Cherry

Birdsong: Listen!

[Afternoon on the hill] Burbling song … [Evening in the garden] Rich, deep trilling …
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Cherry

Moods of Ocean and River

Swelling, surging, heaving … placid calm … Hustling, bustling narrow stream tumbles into gentle Monnow which …
Cherry

Freshening!

Blowing, freshening, blustery gusts bracing, racing, whisking, frisking, decluttering clinging, clogging cobwebs – cast out fast by whooshing blast...
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Cherry

We have three little trees …

We have a little yew tree – dropped by a bird? – it grew: we moved it to a safer spot, and told the girls that yew has leaves and berries poisonous – the’re for …
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Cherry

Winter Refuges

Tiny folded leaves encased in tough scales … protected from the burning frost … waiting there to grow, unfold … And the bulbs are safe as well … hibernating like the tiny dormouse; chemistry on ‘slow’ ’til switched to ‘fast’ with …
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Exquisite Leaf-mulch art

A dropped twig, beautifully clothed … moss-feathers lightening up another patch!
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Gold cherry

Even Father Christmas blown over …!

Grey ‘air-ship’ convoy clouds lumber across the sky, trees shake and bend traffic-light pole sways leaves skitter about (and something sharp hit my...
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Cherry

Storm

Wind battering, rattling, howling, thunder growling, rain pounding, ground flooding, shelter shaking, hearts quaking, loose tiles lifted, breaking,...
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Gold cherry

Night Help

Slowly, silently, the lamplight falls here and there as the farmer strolls back from the barn where the soft beams lit the struggles as ewe and man...
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Gold cherry
Poem of the week

January Skies

In January beautiful tracery of skeletal branches on clear skies cool blue cloudscapes near-sunset tinges – back-lighting glow.
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Cherry

Progress!

Winter’s retreating …
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Cherry

Gentle march of the seasons

Spring hasn’t sprung like a shot from a gun … slowly going, morphing, gently flowing into …
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Cherry

Colourful Chorus!

… exciting explosion: explore!
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Cherry

Wild weeding

Wildflower spatterings of small dainty flowers – mauve, orange, yellow, blue – dappled and soft; but oh, how they grow, spread, how quickly they...
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Cherry

Columbine

… drooping bells to charm not chime in the wild; multilayered flowers self seed in our yard stand erect to display their treasure …
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The tentative gardener

He took out his seeds to sow … the tiniest size and wonky … ’I’ll plant something else now instead!’
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Cherry
Poem of the week

Breathatking Beauty and design

Velvety, soft petal, sepal, tepal deepest purple …
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Cherry

Begonia …

Floating ballroom dresses …
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Cherry

Garden bindweed, again

Insidiously quickly it binds, spirallingly winds entangling. strangling, entwining around grasping support from the stronger stems; poking through,...
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Up Periscope!

Smiling wide it peeped over the wall …
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Cherry

Delicious harvest

A bramble apple tree – laden, swollen fruit – picked and generously shared – a goodly portion received (cut out a few worm-holes, but otherwise...
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Cherry

Visible signs of the invisible

I heard the loose guttering shake, and I heard (not really awake) the tree branches creak and the garden gate squeak: so I knew that the wind was...
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Seasons’ Round

Summer rose and harebells dancing, autumn … winter ,… spring … .
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Cherry

Dragon-dinos

Under a carpet in Carlisle cathedral aisle a brass plate over a marble tomb (about 500 years old); engraved with a dog, a fish, a bird, an eel and two mythical creatures (it is said) — or are they? …Did Saint George kill a dinosaur?
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Cherry

Tumultuous Autumn

Dark days, wet days, grey days … Bright days, golden-orange-trees-ablaze days … Flaming trees and mud – safe bulb and bud.
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Cherry

Bright end of autumn

Blue sky after dark days of cloud and rain and foggy haze, but now the golden sunshine glints on the few remaining shaking leafy tints, and red and...
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Cherry

Pasture-Cleaners

Beetles that roll up balls of their favourite food source … cattle imported but their poo wasn’t suited to the native dung beetles …