At this time of year, there’s a female that shamelessly flaunts her figure and desire to attract a male for the night. She certainly doesn’t hide her light under a bushel and turns parts of Stroud into a ‘green light’ district with her unbridled desires.
But a one-night stand is all she craves and once that’s satisfied, her light is extinguished as she crawls away to lay her eggs and then die. More tragic heroine in a Charlotte Bronte novel than a Jilly Cooper pot-boiler.
Beware of what’s hiding in the undergrowth: they’re black, very hairy and large – well, by caterpillar standards anyway. Woolly bear is the nick-name given to the caterpillar of the garden tiger moth because, as the name suggests, it’s covered with hairs – lots of them. It looks black but in reality the hairs are a mixture of colours: shorter black ones and ginger ones nestling amongst long white-coloured ones.
Continue reading “Look out for woolly bears in your garden (or even flying tigers)!”
It’s the last flourish of orchids right now and Rudge Hill near Painswick is an ideal place to enjoy this. The flowers of fragrant orchids and common spotted orchids were starting to finish when I visited the site the other day, but pyramidal orchids are in their prime and looking sooo perky. It’s also peak time for meadow flowers and there are more flowers than you can shake a stick at showing themselves off in the sun with the accompanying butterflies dancing around. Added to all this is a fantastic 180 degree view from the top, taking in Painswick, the church, Sheepscombe and into the distance along the Painswick valley. It’s such a sublime site, especially on a sunny day, that I dare you to not to break into a ‘Sound of Music’ moment: you know the one – the opening scene where Julie Andrews runs through the meadow on the mountainside, arms outstretched singing ‘The hills are alive….’. And then you can recover your composure in the fabulous Edgemoor Inn just across the road. So this is 4 star wildlife watching!
Continue reading “Rudge Hill – can you resist a ‘Sound of Music’ moment?”
When it’s a warm, sunny day at this time of year, one of my favourite places to go for a picnic and to enjoy being in the great outdoors is Coaley Peak viewpoint. The 180 degree view over the Severn Vale is stunning, there are plenty of interesting wild flowers to admire, lots of space for kids to run around and, if you’ve got young kids who are Harry Potter fans, you can entice them with the idea of visiting the Forbidden Forest, too. It’s also a place where people with restricted mobility, and possibly even those in wheelchairs, could enjoy being outdoors and seeing some wildlife. Add into this mix the ice-cream van that’s usually parked there at weekends during the summer and what else could you ask for?!
Continue reading “Coaley Peak – meadows, marvellous views and possibly ice-cream, too.”
Once the initial explosion of spring flowering has died back and the icing-like cover of white hawthorn flowers has melted from the hedgerows, the next splash of colour comes from the elder tree. The flowerheads are so large, round and flat that they look like giant plates from nature’s best crockery set. In reality, these white blooms are made up of hundreds of tiny flowers and are a magnet for a whole host of insects gorging themselves on the nectar feast they provide.
The elder bush likes growing in disturbed, fertile ground as do nettles which is why picking the flowers often involves trampling down a host of these stinging booby-traps first. The elder is a common sight in hedgerows, waste ground or shrubby areas, and flowers for the first two or so weeks of June. It was held in high regard by our ancestors who regarded it as one of the most magically powerful of plants. Perhaps this is the reason why Dumbledore’s wand (well-known to Harry Potter fans) – the most powerful of them all – was the elder wand!
Continue reading “Elderflower cordial: so easy to make! Here’s how…”
A Year of discovering Stroud's wildlife 