Sessile oak, dandelion, timothy grass, plantain, yellow flag, hawthorn blossom and seeding willow catkins at Wintersett Reservoir this morning.
Wintersett in May
Tag: Dandelion
Butterbur
Butterbur and kingcups are in flower in a small stream or drainage ditch between the sewage works and the end Industrial Street at Horbury Junction. A fresh-looking peacock butterfly feeds on dandelions alongside the canal.
The Nature of Lawns
My sketchbook spread of found objects picked up on a lawn has an autumnal feel. We’re not quite there but on a dull August day there’s a feeling that the end of summer is looming.
Fine rain this morning picked out orb webs with glistening droplets.
I started this page at a family get-together yesterday afternoon in West Melton, near Rotherham, in a garden with several lime trees, planted in Victorian times. There were hundreds, probably thousands, of the limes’ helicopter seeds strewn over the lawn but so far not many leaves. This green heart-shaped leaf may have been torn off the tree in recent high winds but, because of the prominent damage, I wonder if the tree deliberately jettisoned it in an attempt to rid itself of whatever herbivore was starting to nibble holes in it.
The robust bluebell stem with upward-facing seedpods is probably Spanish bluebell, which was often planted in gardens but which has naturalised and in some places threatens to oust our native species.
Wild Flowers with Attitude
I’m saying with flowers for Sofia, who becomes a teenager today.
Flower number three is a bit of a tribute to Burt Lahr, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz:
I’m afraid there’s no denying
I’m just a dandy lion,
A fate I don’t deserveBut I could show my prowess
Yip Harburg (lyrics), ‘If I only had the Nerve’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’
Be a lion, not a mouse
If I only had the nerve.
Green Park
Green Park, South Ossett, 10.45 am, 10℃, 50℉, sunny
A jingling orrent of song from a dunnock in an adjacent garden. Three blow flies gather around a tiny naked chick that has been taken from its nest. A male blackbird perches on a tangle of honeysuckle stems cascading from a larch lap fence.
A robin perches on a branch, watching intently, then spots something and swoops down to the ground to pick it up.
Apart from a few quick sketches in the co-op car park, I’m out of practice for drawing on location, so I decided that I had to be kind to myself this morning and not to worry if, for instance, I get the flowers of the honesty out of proportion with the rest of the plant.
Dandelion
4.40 p.m.: This dandelion has sprung up amongst the chives at the edge of the herb bed. Although the Noodler’s brown ink that I’m using is waterproof, I do struggle with adding a yellow wash; it seems to pick up just a hint of the brown ink.
I was recently reading Exotic Botanical Illustration with the Eden Project and noted that authors Thurstan and Martin advise, in the context of botanical illustration, never to choose any yellow that is described as ‘cadmium’ as it will be opaque. Alternatives include ‘transparent yellow’ which I’ll try when my cadmium yellow and cadmium lemon run out.
As I’m working, a nuthatch visits the sunflower feeder at the other end of the lawn.
Links
Meriel Thurstan, botanical artist
Dandelion
South Ossett, 10.20 a.m.: The morning sun is just getting into this sheltered corner and the flowers of the dandelion are steadily opening; ants are scurry across the paving.
The dandelion head on the lower right has turned to seed but dozens of them are lying on the wet paving slab, parachutes (pappus) unopened. It looks as if some bird has been pecking at it, perhaps one of the sparrows that I can hear calling from the rooftops.
We’re back at Blacker Hall Farm shop for lunch with a view from the restaurant in the barn of the Barnsley to Wakefield Kirkgate railway.
Fasciated Dandelion
The grass on the Onward Christian Soldiers memorial stone green at Horbury Bridge has been allowed to grow as the daffodils fade away and now the dandelions are in flower. A single fasciated dandelion is growing behind the bench.
Fasciation occurs when the the apical meristem (growing tip) of a plant becomes elongated instead of growing as a single point. This can be a genetic or hormonal abnormality but it can also be caused by a fungus, bacteria or virus. Alternatively it could be a reaction to something in the plant’s environment.
The dandelion on the left is growing from a crack between concrete paviers at the edge of our driveway. I decided that I’d enjoy drawing it before weeding it out. This is the first proper drawing that I’ve done with my new Lamy Safari fountain pen. It’s giving me a similar result to a dip pen and Indian ink but it’s much more convenient.
First Celandines
THE SUN has brought out the Lesser Celandines on their steep, sheltered, south-facing bank in the old watermill race, where Coxley Beck descends to follow its conduit under road and canal to the river by the Bingley Arms.
I keep seeing two Robins, behaving in a reasonably friendly manner in the front garden. One of them has been singing from the bare branches of Sumac above the dense growth of Ivy on our neighbour’s fence. I suspect that it is considering nesting in there. I bought an open-fronted nest-box a month ago. It’s time that I put it up.
A few Dandelion flowers are beginning to show, pushing up by the pavement by walls. 
I took up the old brick path last week. I’d made it from bricks recycled from an outbuilding my brother was knocking down 15 or 20 years ago. House bricks aren’t really designed to be used as paviers. Some had crumbled away and as they have frogs (that’s frog as in the slot in each brick) Dandelions and other weeds have been able to become established in the cavities. Hopefully the paving stone path that we’ve laid won’t get so weedy.