 |
Honeysuckle and BrambleWednesday 6th September 2000, West Yorkshire |
BLACKBERRY would take over our back garden, given the chance. After I've cut the hedge, its shoots pop up more quickly than the Hawthorn grows back. Between weekly mowings of the lawn the leading stem of a bramble can stretch a foot or more out across the grass. Like the hogweed yesterday, it has long been a favourite of mine to draw.
They used to say that if you stopped at a pavement café in Paris you'd eventually see everyone you know walk past. A bramble bush is a bit like that; birds, insects and animals are all attracted there during the season; to the flowers, fruit or simply to the cover offered by its prickly arching stems.
Honeysuckle grows in a few places in the wood but these berries are on the plant that we have trained up a trellis fixed to the wall (well half hanging off the wall now with the weight of honeysuckle) by the patio windows. In early summer the flowers attracted moths, including, this year, on one occasion a Hummingbird Hawkmoth, an uncommon migrant in Yorkshire. Now blackbirds are attracted to its berries.
Nature Diary Links
Hummingbird HawkmothCafé Society
Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'