30 DAYS WILD : DAY 13 - A VASE ON MONDAY

On Saturday I was presented with a bouquet - a special little gathering of flowers from my own allotment. Not being able to go here myself is frustrating so having them brought back to me was warming. I'd even go as far as to say 'exciting'. I've not participated in 'In A Vase on Monday' before. Apart from daffodils, I'm not a very flowers-in-a-vase person. I enjoy having flowers in the house but rarely get round to 'doing' them - unless they arrive as a gift, which doesn't happen very often! So this, friends, is an event. I want to record it. 

Here, in a little watering can teapot I was given at Christmas are:

Wild marjoram

Ivy leaved toad-flax

Horse Tails (often called Mare's Tails)

Chives

A Welsh poppy that hasn't grown very big

Thyme

Dianthus - otherwise known as 'Pinks'.

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
gather some flowers
into a vase!

The 'In a Vase on Monday' carnival is hosted by Cathy at  'Rambling in the Garden' and the Random Act of Wildness for today is . . . to gather some flowers into a vase.

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30 DAYS WILD : DAY 14 - FINDING A FEATHER

One of the things we are invited to do for '30 Days Wild in June' is to create a nature table. We are even provided with a squared chart to print out so we can place our treasures in order. The first square is 'Rocks, stones, fossils and bones'. I put a badger skull on my virtual table on the third day. You can read about it here.

The third square is 'Feathers and Fur'. The second is 'Pinecones and Seeds' but there's no obligation to 'do' them in order so I'll fill that in another day. For this morning I went for a fantastic walk down a very steep hill into a secluded, wooded valley with a stream at the bottom and on the way back I found a feather. It was seven inches long, black, with a little white bit near the tip. I don't know what bird dropped it but I'll place it on the virtual table.

It was the kind of walk which would take a book to describe so I am likely to come back to it over a few posts. And I was more than usually aware of everything I was seeing because this weekend we are also invited to take part in the Great Yorkshire Creature Count. How many creature-observations can we record during any period we set ourselves during the twenty-four hours? I'm not doing this but knowing it is happening induced a sort of 'counting mode'.

I saw one ant,

two buzzards (they may have been buzzards) 

three horses / ponies,

a young deer out on its own

a flock of yellow birds (finches?)

a flock of brown birds with an orange tinge (don't know what they were)

starlings

and innumerable (buff-tailed?) bees 

The count is only of creatures but there were lots of buttercups and clover flowers, lichens and masses of grasses that I'd not seen before. The contrast between the top of the walk and the foot of the hill was immense. It started with a huge landscape. The dot in the middle of the photograph is a man - that should give you a sense of scale!

And on the way down, on the top of a very steep slope, was this tree. One of the most characterful of trees I've seen in ages. Further down was a little grove of oak and silver birch. This struck me as an unusual combination. What do you think?

And right at the bottom, I stood on a bridge and looked at a stream - before having to go all the way up again. Thunder and storms had been forecast; rain damage and power outages. I was wearing a woolly hat, a jumper, jeans and a donkey jacket. Did it rain? No. Instead it was blazing hot sunshine, just as one should expect in June! Because of the stem cell transplant I am especially vulnerable to different kinds of cancer so I am supposed to wear high factor suncream and sunglasses when I go out in the sun. I wasn't expecting sun. I was expecting to be rained on. 

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
find a feather!

Another day I will return, better prepared and more appropriately dressed. Suncream instead of winter-wear. Dark glasses. A flask of coffee and a picnic. If you see anyone sinister roaming the Yorkshire hills and valleys over the next few weeks, it may well turn out to be me.

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30 DAYS WILD : DAY 13 - TREE FOLLOWING PART TWO

For Part One of Tree Following on Loose and Leafy in June - Click Here.

Top leaves of mature sycamore tree.

Do you know Jessica? She blogs in my old county of Dorset. She has blogged a lot about rocks and patterns and is currently doing a 'Daily Walk in Difficult Times'. And for many of us - perhaps all of us . . . these are, indeed, difficult times. Right early on in Lockdown, Jessica suggested I could do with a camera with a zoom lens. At that point, I was not 'allowed' out of my house. With a zoom, I could 'see' for much further than my own eyes or my current camera would allow.

Sycamore leaves and vestiges of blossom.
I hadn't set the date properly on the 'new' camera
so I can't tell you when I took the photo - some time in May!

It was a tantalising thought. I imagined sort of living in an urban lighthouse, peering round the landscape from my window. I mentioned this to my brother who, astonishingly, turned out to have a camera with a zoom lens that he no longer uses. It arrived in the post. Unfortunately, the instruction booklet which was sent separately didn't. I can read the manual on-screen but it's not the same so I dived in to experiment. Queue high winds and rain. Queue the sycamore trees leafing up so much that although in theory I can see right across to hills on the other side of town I can currently see little but green. And then there's my arm.

Developing sycamore 'wings' (seeds).
May, 2020

Until a couple of weeks ago it was horribly painful all the time. I constantly re-filled hot water bottles to press against my shoulder. Then, one evening, unthinkingly, I levered myself up in bed onto my elbow. It was agony. Momentarily terrible. Followed by a sort of pins-and-needles tingling. Followed by a new sense of freedom. Movement which had felt forever impossible tuned down a notch to 'perhaps possible if I work on it'. Since then, it's been getting better and better. It still hurts but nothing like it did. Because of the pandemic, I couldn't go to the hospital for a check up when my arm came out of a sling. It was a telephone appointment instead. And there was no physio. I think my left shoulder must have been dislocated all that time as well as the top of the humerus being broken. It must have 'clicked back' into position when I lent on it.

Red galls on the upper side of leaves because mites
are living on the under-side.

The point of all this is that starting off with my new camera has been slow. My arm hasn't been strong enough to properly support its weight and the view I had intended to examine has disappeared behind a wall of greenery that is often thrashing around all over the place. Neither it nor the long camera lens would keep still.

Wrinkles at the foot of new growth.

None the less, it has been extraordinarily interesting. I went to the top of the house and looked out of the window and pointed my lens to the tops of the trees - just for the sake of it.

I found there are red galls on some of the leaves, a reaction made by the tree to mites which live on the undersides of its leaves.

I was able to see the blossom close up. (No picture of this because everything was too wobbly - one of the reasons I think I may 'follow' these trees again next year.)

The 'wrinkles' closer up.

And remember the wrinkles on the twig we looked at on the 23rd May?  I was able to see where they 'fit' in the scheme of the tree.

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
look into the parts of trees
usually too high to reach!

So . . . today's random act of wildness is . . . looking into the parts of trees usually too high to reach!

TODAY'S LINKS

There seem to be two kinds of mite which cause galls like these on sycamores. Here are two links to articles about them in case you'd like to find out more.

1. Sometimes it's Tough Being a Tree - on the blog Hortographical.

2. Mites - On the site 'Science Direct'.

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Have you thought of following the progress of a tree through the year? For more information, go to Squirrelbasket.

30 DAYS WILD : DAY 12. SITTING IN THE RAIN AND LOOKING AT A VIEW

Luddenden Valley in the rain.

Yesterday afternoon, after one lot of rain had left and another was encroaching on the valley, I took a flask of coffee and sat and looked at the view.

In real life I could feel the wind. I could smell the air. I could see so much more than you can see with a brief glance at a photo.

The sheep here are fairly prominent but there are also lots of cows and some horses.

Oat's Royd Mill, Ludddenden.

And down in the dip there's a big old mill - Murgatroyd's at Oat's Royd. It was built in 1847 for manufacturing Worsted (a good quality yarn made from the long strands in a wool fleece) and was incredibly successful because it relied on steam for power instead of water. Over time it was expanded and a huge number of people worked there. It closed in 1982 and now houses apartments. What a place to live! *

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
sit and look at the view.

Today's random act of wildness was simply that, sitting and looking at the view and thinking how happy I am to be here.

*Calderdale Council Luddenden Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, 

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30 DAYS WILD : DAY 11 - TREE FOLLOWING (part one)

Trunk of the sycamore 'on the right'

I was hoping that if I waited, I'd have sunny pictures for this month's tree following. But it is cold. It is windy. It keeps raining. Some of my very tiniest flower seedlings have keeled over and died. I'd better just get on with it!

Sycamore tree 'on the left'
The bark isn't as red in 'real life' as it looks in this picture.

I'm 'following' the progress of two sycamore trees through the year. They are very different from each other and it may mean I should be calling one of them a 'maple' - but they are sycamores to me . . . and I feel I have been acting as nurse maid to them. For weeks on end they dropped blossom. It was thick under foot. Each day I swept it up. And each day more fell. Then suddenly it stopped. The amount falling didn't ease off gradually, it was abrupt. One morning, I went out with my broom - and there was nothing to sweep. There was a pause for a few days. Then a big showering down of little helicopter wings - seeds which weren't going to mature. I swept them up too. That lasted three days or so then they stopped falling. I lent on my broom and thought 'now we wait for autumn'. It's not that I am particularly house proud (though Halifax is a very litter-full place and sweeping up after the trees goes along with gathering rubbish blown here from humans) it's that my short front path is one big stone slab which gets slippery easily and once you start sweeping, you just keep going. I keep thinking how I'd like to be a street sweeper. It's hard work but you get to see where you've been. A bit like ironing. You start with something crumpled and in a little while it's all flat.

I can imagine following these trees next year too. I should have been paying more attention to what the rejected seeds looked like. Instead, I just swept them up. But I have noticed how different the trunks are. (I distinguish the trees by calling them 'the one on the left' and 'the one on the right'.)

And during this time, ripe seeds which fell as 'helicopters' or 'keys' in the autumn have been growing; some in my window boxes. They can't stay there! In pulling them out I gave us the opportunity to see what a complete tree looks like, roots and all.

Uprooted sycamore seedling, leaves facing upwards

With the leaves facing upwards.

Sycamore seedling with underside of leaves showing.

With the leaves facing down.

See the distinctive seed leaves sticking out at right angles from the stem? When you see these in your window boxes or coming up through the pavement, you'll know you'll need to pull them out. They are happy to grow more or less anywhere and they grow huge!

A tree or bush seedling - but what? (Upper side of leaves showing.)

And there was another tree in one of the window boxes too. Idiotically, I didn't notice it was missing horizontal seed leaves and for a while thought I was seeing what the two kinds of sycamore looked like when little. No. The seed from a completely different tree had blown in and grown. 

Unknown tree or bush seedling. Underside of leaves showing.

Part of me would have like to grow it to see what it turned into but I really don't have room. Perhaps someone will know what it might have been? Whatever it was, here we have a complete 'tree' from its uttermost height to its longest toe of a root. Bother! I've not put a ruler there again! I'll become a better scientist one day! (The sycamore seedling was about fourteen inches long when uprooted. The other, a little shorter.)

Sycamore seedling integrated with its shadow.

As ever though, there's more to see.

First the 'Peter Pan Image' - the seedling at one with its shadow. Not only is this interesting as a pattern, its outline gives hints at what else might be there. A slight protrusion . . . 

Aphid on sycamore seedling.

. . . the shadow of an aphid. 

Of course there's an aphid. Is there anywhere where there isn't an aphid?

Brown circle on seed leaves
of sycamore seedling.

And here's a mystery. (Isn't there always a mystery too?) A brown circle. I don't know what this ring is. Do you? (It could, er, could it be where someone dripped a drop of coffee on it? At first I thought that was what it was but now I don't think so because the colour is not 'filled in'.)

30 DAYS WILD
Today's Random Act of
Wildness is to
examine a tree.

That's tree following for today. More about these sycamores to come.

To find out about Tree Following, go to Squirrelbasket.

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