Wild flowers
How cool/complicated would this be as a jigsaw? What is that mass of wild flowers? There’s kidney vetch, common restharrow, birdsfoot trefoil, white clover and who knows what else?
St Annes dunes
Wild flowers flourish in abundance in the sand dunes.
I’ve always admired them but haven’t got to know them intimately, until, dare I mention, the “L-word” (lockdown). It’s been a revelation identifying all those “weeds” that pepper the dunes, scrub and foreshore; fascinating to observe butterflies and insects seeking nectar; entertaining to watch goldfinches tussle with teasels; and, lurking in the undergrowth or growing on tree trunks left by the tide, the weird and wonderful world of fungi.
Research and resources
Scientists, botanists, lepidopterists, and all those other “ists” do it with such ease. I’m an acclaimed “don’t know-ist” – but not without making a great effort using a variety of resources to identify some of our fabulous wild flowers.
I began my foray by taking snapshots using my camera (my phone’s a dumb ‘un) and comparing them with illustrations and photographs in various books. If that didn’t help I uploaded the images from my laptop to Pl@ntNet which generally pointed me in the right direction. Once identified, their names went into my “little notebook of wild flowers”. The list continues to grow.
Harvesting specimens
I began to harvest specimens from the more common species – daisies, ragwort, bindweed, campion. Less common species I admired in situ and took only snapshots. (I now know where to find bee orchids, agrimony and my all-time favourite, wild mignonette.)
Pressings
Every book on the bookshelf took on a new role as a flower-press, scattered across the living room floor, with pickings placed between sheets of paper sandwiched within the pages. Strictly no peeking until a few weeks later. Oh dear! Those vibrant pinkish-purple wild sweet peas clambering in the dunes became muddy-brown specimens. Same with yellow rattle and purple loosestrife. Others kept their colours and some changed their colours in their dried-out form. I made notes and experimented with flowers from the garden; hydrangeas, trailing geraniums, pansies and ragged poppies.
But what to do with the ever-growing collection of pressings?
Card-making
Card-making became the next venture. Instead of emailing friends I stuck a stamp on a floral notelet with snippets of news; home-made birthday cards replaced shop-bought ones; and at the end of the year my collection became Christmas greetings. It’s nice to know many have been saved and framed.
Other-worldly creatures
Some of my pressing became other-worldly creatures!
A flourishing hobby
Like the blooms that flourish in the dunes, this engaging hobby continues to flourish.
I’m grateful to Shazza for her inspiration. On her recent post on Sunshine & Celandines she asked, “Which wildflowers have you seen?” Thanks Shazza!
mybpool 