Tag: Weeds

Wild Flowers with Attitude

wild flowers cartoon

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 deserve

But I could show my prowess
Be a lion, not a mouse
If I only had the nerve.

Yip Harburg (lyrics), ‘If I only had the Nerve’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’
wild flowers birthday rhyme

Spring Weeds

red dead-nettle red dead-nettle1.15 p.m., 49ºF, 9ºC, sun through high hazy cloud, cool breeze from north northwest: These weeds on the L-shaped bed are going to have to go soon as the weather has suddenly turned springlike, the vernal equinox is almost upon us and it’s time to start thinking about planting veg.

I draw red dead-nettle and a weed, a crucifer, which I wouldn’t attempt to identify before the seed-pods start showing, and by that time I should have weeded it out.

mystery weed weed stemOur crops will need protection, not only from the wood pigeons but also from the possibility of next door’s hens coming over to scrat about. The little red hen has already made it through to us under the hedge and she must have liked what she found as our neighbour couldn’t entice her back and had to come around to retrieve her.

dunnockAs I draw there’s a loud song from the hedge just a few yards from me but every time I turn around there’s no sign of the bird. Eventually its head pops up at the top of the hedge: it’s a dunnock. It’s song has more get-up-and-go than the comparatively relaxed, reflective phrases of the robin.

Chickweed, Groundsel and Foxglove

cold frame weedsmagpieThese lush weeds grow in a corner of the cold frame. As I draw, there’s a confrontation between two pairs of magpies with a lot of irate clacking. They meet on our chimney and two of the rivals lock feet together and roll down the roof tiles. The dispute moves on to the next door neighbour’s roof and, as I pack in, magpieI can see them in the top of one of the ash trees in the wood, joined by at least two more magpies and a carrion crow who seems to be just an onlooker.

Whitlow Grass

common whitlow grass, Erophila verna

weederophilaSo far I’m struggling to identify this little weed. Possibly common whitlow grass, Erophila verna. As my drawing is is just an inch and a half across, I’ve scanned it at a higher res to show a bit more detail but I’m not drawing it with the aid of a hand lens so my slightly blurred macro photograph is better for showing details of the flowers and seed-pods.

Sow-thistle

slug on sow-thistlesow-thistle leafsow-thistleWe get several dandelion relatives in the garden. This is smooth sowthistle, Sonchus oleraceus. Note the slug that has already made itself at home in the rosette of leaves.

Sow-thistle stems ooze a milky sap when broken, so the slug must have a way of dealing with this latex.