Flowers at Dorothy Clive Garden today

So many flowers in one place, the Quarry garden at the Dorothy Clive Garden was particularly beautiful. There is a waterfall feature there and the sight of it amongst the Azaleas and Rhodedendrons was lovely. The water cooled the air and the colours in the sunlight were like jewels.

I took far too many photos, I will share more later. There is a laburnum walk which I will post about seperatley.

Sunlight grass and flowers

A warm evening, so we walked along past this grassy area. Unfortunately I’d forgotten I have hay-fever, (it’s just the start of the season) so I walked round with my eyes itching!

I think the flowers are buttercups and dasies, Is there is a song with those words in it? Good to see the flowers though. The bees were buzzing around and enjoying them.

We walked about three miles, we saw a few people and actually chatted at a distance, but it was good to get out.

Outside

White lilac
Aqualegia and Welsh poppies

When I come home it’s lovely to see the Lilac in flower, it’s turned from a bush to a tree. I think the Latin name is Syringa? The white is unusual and we have a white buddliea behind it that comes out a little later. The bees and butterflies love it. Then in front of the house on the pavement we have an assortment of yellow and purple flowers including the aqualegia and Welsh poppies. There are also pansies and other plants. Later on the year there will be nasturtiums. I’m surprised we’ve only had one pot taken in all the years that my hubbies been doing this. It cheers me up.

Tulips

Such nice spring flowers. Bright, colourful, petals like satin. Soft and shapely. It’s no wonder that there was a tulip frenzy a few centuries ago. Tulips with colours that look like flames due to a virus. A single tulip bulb could cost more than a house. I think this was in Holland. My favourites are the dark coloured ones, deep magenta or purple, almost black.

Yes tulips are one of my favourites. You have to remember to plant them deep enough about double the depth of the bulb I think? They tend to fade a bit in their second year but they give a good show if planted in drifts.

Blackthorn?

Flowers from a bush in our garden, tentatively matched in the Spring 2021 issue of the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Magazine, page 13 in the Nature Spy section.

It says ‘Blackthorn is one of the first native shrubs to burst into flower around mid-Marsh.’ (I think it means March) ‘Its fluffy white flowers, tinged with pink, provide vital nectar for the first of the years butterflies, bees and flies. See how many different insects you can spot feeding on the blooms.’

Imagined characters

We had to imagine some characters to add to an illustration so I drew these. I’m not sure whether they are OK. I did a large face so it comes forward in the image, a genie that eminates from the gas fire in the illustration and a fairy just taking in the view…

The resulting image is quite strange, with added fix, owl, horse, bug and cat. Then I added some flowers and plants..

Bad photos so I used filters on my phone then Instagram to bring out the colours, I need to find a way of taking pictures without shadows and glare on the page….