Syrphus ribesii

The hoverflies in their stripes guarded the narrow path.

Defending their airspace, they looked me in the eye.  I turned and ran, preferring to go the long way round.

*Syrphus ribesii.

One of some 250 species of bee and wasp like hoverflies, it’s brilliant markings make this species conspicuous.

*extract from Readers Digest guide to Britain’s Wildlife, Plants and Flowers

Walkthrough the wood

Our 21st century children

will walk, run and jump into this ancient wood

creep past the sleeping horses

take the left path to look at chickens and geese

and run past the two large dogs.

Pause to listen to birdsong.

Take the right path to explore the ruins, avoiding deep holes.

They will return to the main path and continue on until they reach the destination

saving this moment

on their own internal hard-drives.

Goldfinches

It has been snowing. I sit at the table in the kitchen and look out of the window. Of course it is beautiful, and the birds come.

Three, four, then five goldfinches arrive on some uncut seed heads. They work (eat) quietly and carefully with their tweezer like beaks.

I get that image in my head, sit for a while longer then go and do some work.

The latin name for goldfinch is Carduelis carduelis. I don’t need to know this but I like to write it down (it would be in italics but my typewriter doesn’t do them). I read also that the name for a group of goldfinches is a charm (or chirm) and this seems very suitable.

table

The new table had history. The top was new wood (ply) and it was covered with red formica. Rectangular, with enough depth for two children to reach across and touch fingertips. The table top was supported by the most unusual legs. (the following description is from memory and may be changed at a later date).

Made of cast iron, they could be described more as supports than legs, with a strengthening arch between the verticals. There may or may not be words, (the name of a company?) set into the hard alloy of iron, carbon and silicone.  Black, ferrous, or painted? Strong, solid, industrial, functional. Unmoveable and unchangeable (it says so in the Oxford English Dictionary). Their H shaped footprints reveal themselves on the red and yellow chequered floor many years later.

Something you think is unbreakable can be brittle indeed.

Pussy willow

Did you leave a bunch of pussy willow, daffodils and irises on a doorstep in Wolverhampton?

It would have been on or around the twenty eighth of February, nineteen seventy two. They were for a young couple and their new baby.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you.

Pussy willow, goat willow or great sallow Salix caprea

A very common shrub found all over the British Isles; both the common and scientific names reflect the fondness of goats for this willow’s early spring foliage. But most people know it as pussy willow.

Confession

At the start of the longest continuous slope  (in England) I would carefully and quickly pluck a whole rose and hold it in my hand. Inhale the perfume and, once past the houses, peel each calamine pink petal from its base and let it fall to the ground.

The petals followed me like footprints and a jury of bees would have found me guilty.

It was wrong and I apologise.

Swifts and swallows

We stood on a bridge and watched the birds below.

Black swifts and blue swallows, swimming and swooping through the air.

Home

The old co-op is made from millstone grit. Under the black it is golden, like demerara sugar.

Under their grey and matted coats, the sheep are pure white.

Deadly nightshade

I have to admit to a certain amount of anxiety following an incident in a run down car park somewhere in Manchester.

A bush with black shiny berries.

These  look like blackcurrants said my mum as she popped a few into her mouth.

Or deadly nightshade, she added after swallowing.

And left it at that.

Deadly Nightshade  Atropa belladonna

Fairly common on chalk in the south east, rare elsewhere. The whole plant is very poisonous and children should be warned against the attractive berries. A child may be killed by eating two.

extract from Wild Flowers of Britain by Roger Phillips