WALKING WITH NATURE

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The first PIP shows the whole tree. The second PiP shows another example of Prunus species possibly damson. The differences between plum blossom and cherry blossom: 1 Plum blossom buds are round, whereas cherry blossom buds are oval. 2 Plum blossom flowers earlier than cherry blossom. 3 The flowers of cherry blossom split at the end of the petals, whereas those of plum blossom don't.

Xanthoria on concrete fence post

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKc_aMF0gwI The Sunday Challenge this week is to make your picture a combination of blue and yellow. Corylus avellana - male catkins of hazel. Myosotis arvensis - forget-me-not flowers Salix caprea - male catkins of pussy willow

Today's Sunday Challenge: A WEED APPRECIATION DAY!! Equisetum is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae. In the early spring, white to tan coloured fertile stems that produce spores, shown here, arise from the soil and grow to about 8-12 inches tall. They are unbranched, leafless and topped by a spore-bearing cone. These die down quickly and are followed by new shoots annually from underground rootstalks. Their hollow, jointed, ridged stems contain silicate and other minerals. The leaves are reduced to sheaths that clasp and encircle the shoots. Another name for Horsetail is scouring-rush which refers to the rush-like appearance of the plants and to the fact that the stems are coated with abrasive silicates, making them useful for scouring (cleaning) metal items such as cooking pots. It is sold on Amazon as it’s believed to have multiple medicinal properties and is mostly used to improve skin, hair, and bone health. However, despite centuries of use in traditional medicine, there is no evidence that Equisetum has any medicinal properties. Equisetum is a pernicious weed, and is difficult to eradicate, due to its deep rooted nature and thick silica structure. . Herbicides give the best levels of control. Gardeners need to be careful with a weed like horsetail as not only does it spread via spores but it only takes a finger sized piece of root horsetail to regrow. It should be remembered that killing horse tail is not a quick fix and regular re-applications of herbicides and repeated ongoing cultural control may be needed. My advice if you have these weeds in your garden? Move house! ;-)

Gorse: Kissing's out of season when gorse is out of bloom. Gorse is very rarely out of bloom, so kissing is nearly always in season. Thrum-eyed primroses: See if you can spot the pin-eyed type as well. www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/devon_bap/prim2.htm The humble daisy: Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r. For the Scots among us - www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43817/to-a-mountain-daisy

The common name comes from the leaf's supposed resemblance to a colt's foot. The plant is believed to have been brought to the United States by early settlers for its medicinal properties. Coltsfoot is a perennial herb, rhizomatous, 2-20 in tall with large basal leaves and scaly-bracted stem. The plant is now native to Europe and can be found in stream banks, moist field or pastures, roadsides and disturbed areas. It can also be found in drier sites and in poor soils, but it is intolerant of shade and is not commonly found in wooded areas

Birds have up to 25,000 feathers, and regular preening keeps each one of those feathers in top condition. Preening is a bird's way of grooming its feathers to keep them in the best condition. While preening, birds remove dust, dirt, and parasites from their feathers and align each feather in the optimum position relative to adjacent feathers and body shape. Most birds will preen several times a day to keep themselves healthy. The PiP shows this Muscovy duck conditioning its plumage.

Today's Sunday Challenge is: Dreaming Yesterday we visited the Aston Locks Nature Reserve again and saw a pair of swans, 4 coots, an unidentified bird of prey (possibly a kestrel) and a delightful area of what appears to be Cuckoo Flower in one of the ponds. It would have been nice to collect all of this together as a dream photo, but the coots were too far away and the hawk was a blur in the sky. So here is a collage of dreaming. The bird hide is now open, and a cold spring has arrived.

"Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly, "'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy; The way into my parlour is up a winding stair, And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."

Red Campion. Silene dioica Orange Tip Butterflies. Anthocharis cardamines Seed Head of Coltsfoot. Tussilago farfara.

Happy May Day everyone.

Dusty Springfield - The Look of Love 1967 It is fairly easy to distinguish the male swan or COB from the female swan the PEN. The large black fleshy lump at the base of the bill is much larger and more pronounced on the male, this can be called the "berry". The male's tail is also wider and more fanned out, whereas the Pen's comes to a single point. This difference is not so obvious in this photo.

Find the fence amid the bluebells. We all know, or think we know, what a true English bluebell, Hyancinthoides non-scripta, is. But many folks confuse the English bluebell with the Spanish bluebell, Hyacinthoides hispanica. On the Spanish flower, the bells are all around the stem, not just on one side, which gives the English bluebell its drooping stature. The leaves are wider and bigger. The petals of each bell open wider and flare at the ends rather than curl. The bells are slimmer on the English bluebell. The stamen is blue on the Spanish version and yellow on the English one. The English bluebell is a deeper blue than the Spanish one, which is a delicate shade of pale blue. The English bluebell is stronger scented. The Spanish bluebell is taller. The Spanish bluebell can tolerate sunshine and happily grows in open spaces, whereas the English bluebell prefers at least partial shade and is never found growing in open spaces. Spanish bluebell flowers lift their heads towards the sun. English bluebells never do. But in their favour the Spanish bluebells are much more showy and the colours can be pale blue, purplish, pink or white, but I dig them out of my garden as soon as I see them. www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGrWkRw70JU www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRWi5Xah91s

Wood sorrel is an edible wild plant that has been consumed by humans around the world for millennia. Apparently the Native American Kiowa people chewed wood sorrel to alleviate thirst on long trips, the Potawatomi cooked it with sugar to make a dessert, the Algonquin considered it an aphrodisiac, the Cherokee ate wood sorrel to alleviate mouth sores and a sore throat, and the Iroquois ate wood sorrel to help with cramps, fever and nausea. Because of the shape of the leaves it is also known as 'false shamrock'.

Narcissus poeticus, the poet's daffodil, poet's narcissus, nargis, pheasant's eye, findern flower or pinkster lily, was one of the first daffodils to be cultivated, and is frequently identified as the narcissus of ancient times. I know it as Pheasant's Eye, and the very short 'trumpet' is very distinctive. The flower is extremely fragrant, with a ring of tepals in pure white and a short corona of light yellow with a distinct reddish edge. I don't find it easy to grow at all, and have only seen it a few times in National Trust gardens, and certainly it is not found in big drifts there. I do remember vividly my father taking me to a private woodland in the Kingdom of Fife, when I would have been seven or eight years old. The fragrance was really powerful. Today brought back those memories. As far as I know this is the latest flowering species of daffodil in the UK.