This Sunday afternoon I had a look through my recent photos of some of the lichens that I find growing in the area here, some of them in our own garden, others are found in the local forests of West Cork, growing on trees but also on rocks, on stone buildings, on roofs. Our own roof has some orange lichen (I read that this is a sign that we live in a clean environment… no pollution). I love lichen and find them fascinating but so far I have not had much luck with identifying them, for proper identification you need more than the naked eye, a microscope or at least a hand lens. So I’m not going to attempt to put identification with my photos as yet. Lichens are a combination of a fungus and one or more algae in a mutually symbiotic relationship. I read that the algae do the photosynthesis, providing the fungi with energy for reproduction, the fungi in turn provide structural form and protect the lichen from bright light . I find lichen beautiful and in fact would love a workshop on their identification, it would be very interesting especially as there are so many types of them growing here.
On the prompt of my brother-in-law I looked up this wonderful educational website: of the British Lichen Society ~ https://britishlichensociety.org.uk/learning/about-lichens: I’m sure it will be very useful for yours truly and for anyone else interested in lichen. Thanks Colin!
This misty Sunday afternoon was a good time for a walk in Myross wood. I’d been to the plant sale there and after picking some new plants for the garden, and a cup of tea that is just what I did. The birds were singing and there was a wealth of new life, flowers and plants, young leaves on the trees as well. I found plenty of beautiful mosses and lichens, also some fungi. As it has been rather wet the last week the woods were full of moisture and many of the plants had rain or mist drops dripping off them. An ideal way to see the forest, beautiful and calm, no wind. There were few other walkers. I could hear the brook from afar adding to an overall feel of dampness which in fact did not disturb me, rather it gave me a refreshing feeling. April in West Cork can be a nice month, still chilly at times but when the sun comes through it gives all of its warmth at once, a very nice feeling that is. Often the month of May is already our summer with temperature going over 20degrees Celsius. But seeing that it is still April the days can be unpredictable, today was misty and windstill, very quiet. The detail that is to be found on the forest floor among some of last autumn’s leaves is amazing, all the new life, so fresh and delicate, beautiful and interesting too. I found plenty of that today. The many photos that I took of the lichen I’ll be showing in another blog post, I simply love lichen and mosses too. Meanwhile enjoy what follows today and thank you for visiting.
It is nearing the end of March and though the weather is still quite wet, it is time to put some of the plans that I have made for the garden into action. The frost is gone and the temperature is now around 18 degrees. The soil temperature was 11 degrees Celsius today. However, the soil is still very wet. I’ve been working at the back of the garden taking roots out of the soil, roots from ivy, black currant, and nettles from a patch where I want to grow our potatoes this season. It’s hard but rewarding work and I just love working with the soil, feeling it and finding little creatures in it, even the colours of different soil is interesting. The plot that I’m currently working in has always been used to dispose of organic matter, and it has benefited this soil very much, its colour is more brown than the surrounding black. Originally our soil was mostly clay but over the years I’ve been changing it to loam by using lots of composted garden and kitchen refuse. So anyway, my plans for this year include introducing some of my favourite perennials and annuals, some of these I will be sowing and some I am buying. We do have two excellent garden centres here in the town, I can get anything I want. Talking about anything I want… one of my dearest wishes for many years is to get a small green house, think of what I could grow off season…
This is only the start of getting the plot ready, lots more work to be done.
During the winter I covered the patch that I planned to use for the potatoes with canvas, it did make a difference when I uncovered it yesterday, a lot of the grass had wilted. Two robins where looking for grubs in the newly disturbed soil, they are so lovely and not a bit afraid of us humans.
Some of the vegetables that are currently growing still and ready for eating.
And some of the flowers that are heralding spring, they seem to brave the wind and rain so easily!
FeverfewDandelionNettle and CleaversWild violets and ramsoneBorage
And these above are some of my more wild plants which I treasure too, some for cooking, and some for the enjoyment of the flowers when they show later in the summer. They all grow so easy and start to grow very early in the year, such a joy, so green and healthy looking. In fact most of these plants overwinter here as the climate is mild, we did get some frost, even a little snow, but mostly temperatures are a few degrees above zero during the night and in the day they vary between 8 and 10 Celcius.
During the past three years I’ve added several shrubs to my collection, and this year I’m thinking of buying a Mahony shrub, I see them growing in tubs around the town and love them. Their honey scented yellow flowers are beautiful and also flowering early in the year. The leaves turn a lovely colour in autumn. Inside I’m starting a Ribes plant from a cutting, and I’ve got a Skimmia sapling still sitting on the kitchen window-sill ready to plant out soon, it is a male plant so I will be looking for a female to join it, it is the female plant that develops the deep red berries. I have sweet pea seedlings on my bedroom window-sill, a bit too soon those plant out. It’s time to sow a selection of summer flowering annuals inside, but the marigolds I’ll be sowing outside during the next week, they thrive very well in our garden. I’m also setting a myriad of gladiola bulbs.
Rose grow real well hereHydrangea ready for the seasonTiny solitary beeMy plan for 2023While digging I disturbed this centipedeYears ago I planted this Forsythia so that we would have some colour early in spring, this year is the first time that it blooms so lovely!
I am not your regular gardener, though I love the physical work that gardening involves, mostly I like to experiment and I like to see what comes growing into my garden without me planting it, I like the element of surprise and discovery. I like taking note of what my soil needs and so testing the soil, taking its temperature, making note of how much light a certain plot receives, how acid the soil is, and much more. I also like to propagate plants, grow from cuttings etc… It’s something I’ve done all my life. And I like to provide fresh vegetables for my family… well, my husband and myself that is, I love cooking with fresh produce that I’ve just plucked from the garden whether it’s wild or cultivated, a combination is great. Right now the wild plants that are plentiful are three cornered leeks, succulent tops of cleavers, young dandelion leaves and tender nettle leaves. The earth gives abundantly!
Yesterday was a lovely spring day, full sunshine and only a little breeze, dry. My grandson Ruben was visiting and after cooking lunch together we decided to go and see which flowers and plants we would find in the hedgerow along our favourite walk. We took off in a gallop as Ruben is a very fit twelve and a half year old, he leads an active outdoor life and loves his gymnastics. During this walk he wanted to take photos and so, as you do, I handed him over my phone. Following are some of the pictures he took. I think he did very well and he concentrated on what was to be found hidden away, and finding he did; some water plants and fresh grasses. He also took a couple of photos while half climbing a tree. And in his pocket he carried a bag in case he came across other people’s rubbish! He is a good citizen in the making who cares about his environment. We both had an interesting time and we also had a good laugh and fun as he pushed me or pulled me and called me an old granny if I lagged behind because I was looking at some specimen of plants I wanted to have a closer look at, but all in good spirit of give and take. I felt very refreshed after our walk.
Above are five of Rubens photos, taken on our walk. He came across a ladybird, and was fascinated by a little brook and of what was growing in there.
Searching, observing and finding that spring has started and that lots of signs are to be seen all over the place.
It is lovely to see buds enlarging on the trees. This walk is safe as not many cars drive here, it eventually connects to the Castletown road at Rusha Mill. With the town of Skibbereen becoming more built up, this is a very valuable piece of rural beauty and long may it be that way.
“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own” Charles Dickens
“Frost grows on the window glass, forming whorl patterns of lovely translucent geometry.” Vera Nazarian
“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” John Burroughs
“You find high art in the mysterious beauty of nature! In high art, you find high genius! In high genius, you find endless glows!” Mehmet Murat ildan
“Humankind demonstrates an unerring ability to witness beauty. By observing nature’s beauty and striving to create beautiful things, humankind brokers its own salvation.” Kilroy J. Oldster
“In the middle of winter, I, at last, discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus
We did not get snow, but one of the mornings we woke up to our Juneberry tree’s ( Amelanchier lamarckii) branches as white as snow, it was the frost that did it, and it was very beautiful.
“Our mind is a limitless sky, and we can only be an albatross flying in the vast expanse to occasionally discover the joys of sublimity!” – Avijeet Das
“Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray-painted by a graffiti artist.” – Mia Kirshner
“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” – Anton Chekhov
Summer has been long, warm and dry, how lovely it has been this year and still it continues though it is almost the end of September. The beautiful warm sunshine illuminates the now autumn colours. Day by day the leaves are turning red, yellow and all shades of brown. Pungent scents fill our lungs, it is a delight to our minds and souls.
My sister and I were discussing food for the soul the other day and while giving it deep thought I know what it is that often feeds my soul; it is what I find and observe in nature, meditation on it and thankfulness for it.
Last weekend my daughter took me to Killarney in Co. Kerry and one of our plans was to walk in the national forest which is one of the remaining ancient forests in Ireland with many native trees. The two days we spent there were very restorative. The beauty of the trees laden with their seeds at this time was what inspired us, we talked about it, it made us cheerful and light-hearted. We rested for coffee and cake at a thatched roof cottage and sat out in the sunshine with leaves lightly twirling around us, our conversation deep and yet full of excitement at being in a place where we felt not a care in the world.
This delightful cottage where lovely coffee and cakes are servedMy daughter
Though this was the first time I had a break since before covid time, I have gathered quite a collection of photos over the summer that are now waiting to be used and written about in my blog. So watch this space! (I will as well 🙂 )
Ireland has around 100 different types of grasses, including native and non-native grasses, a fact of which I was not aware, but recently I bought a guide on grasses from Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre and now I am learning about them. I have always found that many grasses are beautiful and decorative and there are always plenty of them around. Especially this summer the back of our garden is full of them, full of different types and they are growing nice and tall with lots of seeds to show. I don’t know all the different names yet but am looking them up one by one.
Our garden has been left to grow all the wild plants that were willing to come up this year. There were plenty of foxgloves, thistles, sow thistles, dandelions, nettles, buttercups, borage, evening primrose, herb Robert, plantain, and many more wild plants, and of course grasses and I’ve let them all grow. This means that things were a bit overgrown the last few weeks and now I have a helper, Dave, who is moving some plants and shrubs around for me so that I can plant our winter vegetables soon.
So here follow some photos of our grasses, I find them all very beautiful and am eager to learn more about them.
And so the summer is moving along and plenty of plants are already in seed including the grasses. The wind is dispersing the seeds and it follows that next year we will probably have even more grasses, these grow at the very back of the garden on a piece of uncultivated land which I want to keep wild. Leaving the wild plants and flowers to grow has been successful and we are seeing butterflies and bees of all sorts. There is always lots to discover even in a smallish garden and that is great for the nature lover who is house bound for part of the time. It is also great for anyone.
Dear friends I hope that you are enjoying this lovely summer, or your winter and especially that you are enjoying whatever blessings that nature gives you in your own surroundings.
A windless morning in the garden. A lone robin is singing in the birch tree. Some sounds are travelling up from the town in the valley. I’m having my morning coffee outside on the patio and enjoying this beautiful and peaceful scene. Our foxgloves are almost totally in seed now, only the tops of their long stems are still a beautiful pink, they have been very good for the pollinators. This morning only a few bumblebees have visited. Seagulls and crows are flying over our airspace shouting confident cries. Sparrows are chirping in the hawthorn tree, many of them. How I love all those sounds.
Of the usual two dozen that years ago were, there are now only four swifts visiting in our area, I so miss their summery sounds above our houses and gardens.
How I enjoy all this activity in nature, and this morning is a rare break in my own daily activities, a solace to the soul, a much desired rest for the body. And yet it is there for the taking – whenever and free. A true blessing.
agoyvaerts 