|   It's
been a good year for brambles: their prolific arcing
stems are covered in sweet black fruits as summer comes to a close. Barbara
has been fighting back against their insurgencies in the herb bed and
flower border but here at Roach Hills, Garforth, the
tangle of brambles has blocked the narrow path to one of the small clearings
of autumn flowers.
Green-veined white butterflies rest on the hedgerow
plants and settle amongst the blackberries in a sheltered thorny hollow.
  The
main area of the nature reserve's hummocky turf has recently been mowed
so, just when I've started drawing this autumn gentian,
growing next to a stunted gorse by a rabbit hole, the other members of
the Wakefield Naturalists' Society who we've come here
with decide that we'd do better elsewhere.
Ledsham Banks
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On a south-facing grassy bank at this
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, formerly known as Ledsham
Vale, devil's-bit scabious are nodding
their rounded flowerheads in the breeze in a drift of bluish purple.
A few rock-roses grow amongst them. Common
rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium, isn't a member
of the rose family, it's one of the Cistaceae;
the Rock-Rose Family.
A small red/orange fungus with yellow gills is growing at the edge
of the path amongst short grass by a ragwort leaf. |
 A
Leventhorpe White
 Because
of the wind and wet we've had during August, many garden flowers that
would normally go on flowering into the autumn are now looking bedraggled,
however these geraniums in a window box have plenty of
life in them.
We've come for lunch to our friends (and fellow Wakefield Nats members)
Roger and Sue Gaynor. They've recently
visited a local vineyard, Britain's most northerly commercial vineyard,
at Leventhorpe, Swillington (not far from Temple Newsam,
Leeds). This is the Leventhorpe White Rose Table Wine (which
slightly confused me at first as their is no hint of rosé in it!).
The perfect choice after a late summer wildflower walk: cool, sweet and
fruity with a bouquet that reminds us of pears. 
 Related
Links
Roach Hills: a previous naturalists'
field trip
Ledsham Vale a visit with my Calder Valley
Walks group in May 1999.
Leventhorpe
Vineyard
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk
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