Wild West Yorkshire nature diary, Sunday 4th July 1999
BRIGHT PURPLE FLOWERS of Selfheal are sprinkled over my Mum's lawn. My Mother-in-law has them on her lawn too. She's not too keen on them; I've heard her describe them as looking like the chunks of ground beef on a pizza. I'd love to have it on our lawn, but at least the current rash of White Clover looks almost as good. The Mums, despite my enthusiasm for such wild flowers, would prefer a 'weed'-free lawn.
Because of the hooked top lip on each flower, Selfheal became associated in the mind of medieval herbalists with the treatment of wounds caused by billhooks and scythes. It was also used to make a syrup to treat sore throats.
A couple of brown hoverflies visit the dog daisies. When one leaves the other zooms off after it, to another of the daisy heads.
This year I've draped a net over the blackcurrants, which we normally have to share with the Blackbirds. I'm glad to see that they have found an alternative - the berries of our garden berberis (at least I think it's Berberis calilliantha, a shrub originally from marshes at 2,500 metres in the Tsangpo Gorge, Xizang, China).
Amphibious Bistort is about to come into flower on the canal. A Pond Skater glides on the water surface nearby.
Four Meadow Browns and a Small Tortoiseshell feed on the flowers of Creeping Thistle by the lane, but, strangely enough, on a Buddlehia that is in flower by the stables further along, there is not a butterfly to be seen.
A wasp settles on an old fence and starts to chew away at the wood. This chewing leaves light-coloured scars on the weathered surface, each about the size of a match stick. This wasp has a clear yellow face, so it is probably the Tree Wasp, which uses the pulped wood to build a small ball-shaped nest which hangs in a bush.
BRIGHT PURPLE FLOWERS of Selfheal are sprinkled over my Mum's lawn. My Mother-in-law has them on her lawn too. She's not too keen on them; I've heard her describe them as looking like the chunks of ground beef on a pizza. I'd love to have it on our lawn, but at least the current rash of White Clover looks almost as good. The Mums, despite my enthusiasm for such wild flowers, would prefer a 'weed'-free lawn.
Because of the hooked top lip on each flower, Selfheal became associated in the mind of medieval herbalists with the treatment of wounds caused by billhooks and scythes. It was also used to make a syrup to treat sore throats.
A couple of brown hoverflies visit the dog daisies. When one leaves the other zooms off after it, to another of the daisy heads.
This year I've draped a net over the blackcurrants, which we normally have to share with the Blackbirds. I'm glad to see that they have found an alternative - the berries of our garden berberis (at least I think it's Berberis calilliantha, a shrub originally from marshes at 2,500 metres in the Tsangpo Gorge, Xizang, China).
A wasp settles on an old fence and starts to chew away at the wood. This chewing leaves light-coloured scars on the weathered surface, each about the size of a match stick. This wasp has a clear yellow face, so it is probably the Tree Wasp, which uses the pulped wood to build a small ball-shaped nest which hangs in a bush.