Flora

The budding brambles on Blackberry Way are increasingly interwoven with the counterpoint of twisting con volvulus. Amongst this bind weed abides the white plume moth, which I observed for a few moments before releasing it into the warm evening air.

The tamarisk trees on the outer bank are beginning to blossom and as with other plants on the foreshore, I am collecting a small sample to ‘preserve’ in alcohol. The pink blossom, red of the stem and fresh green foliage … Continue reading →

The flags are flowering along many marsh edges and I have preserved a small sample plant in alcohol as part of a collection of local flora. The colour of the petals is quickly leached out, leaving them beautifully transparent, yet pale ghosts of their … Continue reading →

Land argues with the risen tide all about its borders. Delicate sea pink threatened by the advances of grey brine on a cold May day.

Nick recently watched an episode of QI where the difference between thorns and prickles was explained. The Egg is surrounded by bushes protected in one of these ways or the other. Prickles grow from the skin of the plant and … Continue reading →

A cedar of Lebanon in Exbury Gardens gifted me the branch I needed for a ‘Christmas tree’ and has now laid a candelabrum at my feet. On a walk yesterday morning I found this weathered branch whose six eroded cones … Continue reading →

I spent all morning studying Andricus Kollari, the tiny parasitic wasp whose eggs cause the marble oak galls on both scrubby oaks growing beside my own Egg. The life cycle of the wasp requires the presence of a Turkey oak which … Continue reading →

The blackthorn thicket is filled with thousands of tiny buds which will soon produce cascades of bright flowers to whiten the wintery greyness surrounding the Egg. These blooms are thought to symbolise both life and death together, as they appear … Continue reading →

A handful of gorse flowers were painfully picked from the parish bush, then washed and dried. Rehydrating a few flowers with boiling water made a tea for breakfast. It has a bitter aftertaste with some sweet notes, but I could … Continue reading →

Yellow gorse flowers were a cheering splash of colour on a rare dry evening, given a warm tint by the setting sun as the moon rose up behind. Of course gorse is a common plant up on the heathland of … Continue reading →

Following on from my previous posting, I can report that the search for orris root (an ingredient in the purification of Exbury Sea salt in the eighteenth century) has quickly proved fruitful. On a walk today with friends and with … Continue reading →

Source: http-//www.thenewforest.co.uk/discover/pigs.aspx

Moonlight through the tangled thorny forest of the blackthorn egg, cast ghostly reminders of wildwood onto the planed and tamed timbers of the Exbury Egg in the early hours this morning.

I placed an egg of woven blackthorn in the thicket from which its twigs and small branches originally came. It is held together with ties of twine and will soon be slowly absorbed into the dense new growth of Springtime. … Continue reading →

The tree is an appropriately curved frond from a Cedar of Labanon (appropriately biblical), found nearby within the confines of Exbury Gardens. It nestles in the arc of the inner wall is decorated with flotsam from the shore. On Twelfth … Continue reading →

Leaves and grasses were firmer underfoot as I ventured out into the first frost of the year this morning. While the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’* is with us still, it heralds the Winter that is not many more weeks … Continue reading →

I visited the outer bank on Thursday and was impressed by the Tamarisk trees. Their tiny leaves are folded close to the stem as can be seen in my microscope photograph. I will look forward to enjoying a much wider perspective … Continue reading →

I began to make rose hip syrup on October 4th (see earlier blog post), but decided instead to make the pulped hips into an ink for drawing. So last Sunday I spent a whole day making syrup using hips from another … Continue reading →