Category Plant-based – all things botanical
2nd August 2020 – a red umbellet on Saltbox Hill
Early morning and we eat breakfast part-hidden by Wild Carrot and Field Scabious on Saltbox Hill where Darwin reportedly walked and picnicked too. Like a number of other botanists I know of, I’m mesmerised by the beauty of the central red flower or umbellet on many Wild Carrot flowering heads, This year I’ve been photographing […]
26th July 2020 – Sage of the woods
Returning from a wonderful week of sand dunes and salt marshes, walking in the woods this morning is like putting back on an old pair of slippers. I make for an area near the footbridge which I haven’t visited for a while and find Wood Sage in flower. This plant isn’t really a Sage, the […]
12th July 2020 – which one’s the butterfly bush?
The Butterfly Bush (Buddleja davidii) is in flower on the side of the rail trackbed. The strong sweet scent and pink lilac mini-trumpet flowers with an orange eye are usually a big attraction for butterflies but not here. I watch for ten minutes or so and there are no visitors. A man walking past with […]
31st May 2020 – verging on wild
On the north side of Dulwich Wood where it borders a cul de sac, there’s a picket fence of around 200 metres long with a two metre high cherry laurel hedge (yes, ugh!) running along outside it. Between the hedge and road kerb is a grass verge which varies from about one metre to […]
24th May 2020 – the rasp of fledglings and a patch of sweet woodruff
I have baby birds on my mind as I set off into the woods this morning. Our blue tits fledged earlier this week and as the families before them flew straight into the oak tree opposite our house. I was pleased to see them all make this first survival milestone successfully but it seems very […]
17th May 2020 – there’s white and white and was that a cuckoo?
This week the elder flowers are ready for harvesting. My May ritual is burying my nose in a spray of flowers and inhaling the heady scent. The smell is not universally appreciated but it has good associations for me with summer picnics and parties. To be clear, I don’t pick the ones in the woods […]
The Urban Naturalist 