Nature Trail

After we picked my daughter up from school, and before our tea, I asked my three year old son and six year old daughter if we should go on a quick 'Nature Trail' to the end of the lane.  "YES!!" They both yelled with delight, and I knew I was on to a winner.

We ran down the lane, dodging the stinging nettles and brambles poking out from the hedge, until we reached the end of the lane.  We managed to spot several ladybirds Propylea 14-punctata (?), chiefly black with red spots.  ("Those," said my daughter sagely, "are poisonous.  You know that because they're black with red spots.  The normal ones are red with black spots.")  The ladybirds were on a large Sycamore tree, whose leaves had large black dots on them, and a couple of leaves had, what appeared to the naked eye, to have small insect eggs on them.

Also identified were Common Ragwort Senecio jacobaea, something resembling Field Fleawort Senecio integrifolius, ("Look at these beautiful flowers," said my son, proving that even the ordinary can be wonderful.) Upright Hedge-Parsley Torilis japonica, Perenial Sow-Thistle Sonchus arvensis.

We had a lovely time looking at some plants as well as trying to find some of the many insects that bobbed their heads up, before they dived for cover.

I would have taken pictures but was having too much fun with my kids.

PS My son managed to find another stick to add to his, already large, stick collection. ;-)

Walnut Tree in Perry Court Farm Shop

It's amazing what you find when you really start looking.  Since deciding that I really should take more interest in nature and the natural world around us, I've found some wonderful things, and have really begun to genuinely look around me as I make my way in my everyday life.

A case in point is finally seeing what was in front of me for the first time.  I was at Perry Court Farm Shop near where we live, and I wondered what the tree was next to the shop.  So I went and investigated, only to find that it is a Walnut tree Junglans regia. With its little green rugby ball shaped fruit and long green tapering leaves.

It's amazing what you can find around you.

Walnut Tree found at Perry Court Farm Shop.