Awful weather - typical Brits talk

Apodemus

PP, The purple one is "bugle", Ajuga repens - could be the wild, native one or a cultivar.

I also got my first midge bites on Sunday, on a brief foray south to visit folk near the Clyde coast, and was flapping away at the mozzies on my return back north, so the beasties are definitely back!  Yet to have my first cleg bite, though, but with all this rain it is only a matter of time! 

pink_poppy

Thanks for that Apodemus, I’ve not heard of Bugle before.

It’s been perfect midge weather here, so no surprise they’re back. I’ll have to get the Skin So Soft out... 🙄

Apodemus

I see that A. reptans now seems to be the preferred species name for bugle, which is just plain confusing since it used to share repens with other similar creeping plants.  If it's good enough for Trifolium, Ranunculus, Ceanothus and Gypsophila, why change Ajuga!  </rant> 

Davesnave

The other one looks like Solomon's Seal, poppy. Lovely in spring, with the hanging pearls of white flowers and very useful in shade, but the sawfly always find mine and it looks a mess by July.

I seem to have had so many cleg bites, they no longer do more than hurt at the time and I don't get the nasty, itchy swelling much at all. No sign of the little monsters yet; they arrive around midsummer's day if I recall correctly.

Apodemus

Davesnave said:

I seem to have had so many cleg bites, they no longer do more than hurt at the time and I don't get the nasty, itchy swelling much at all. No sign of the little monsters yet; they arrive around midsummer's day if I recall correctly.

We can certainly get them much earlier than that, but it depends on the species.  The most common one  (Haematopota) starts to be an issue here in late May in open country or pasture and the one we get in the local forest (a species of Chrysops) is a bit later.  But the biggest one we get (a Tabanus sp) can be out and about from the beginning of May, particularly if we get sunny weather on the west coast.  The clegs do a bit of a tag-team job with the midges and take over the job of tourist-baiting when it is too sunny for the midges!  

Farway

Raining when I woke up, but now the sun's out which will give me chance to harvest some rhubarb and re tie the gooseberry

Thanks for identifying the Bugle, my neighbour has it in her grass, I'll let her know because she's been talking about sowing wild flowers, seems nature beat her to it

No midges or other biters here, we don't seem to suffer from them, or maybe my skin is so repulsive they never come close?

Davesnave said:

The other one looks like Solomon's Seal, poppy. Lovely in spring, with the hanging pearls of white flowers and very useful in shade, but the sawfly always find mine and it looks a mess by July.

Spotted, and disposed of, my first sawfly on the gooseberries Monday, just a few but obviously around, presumably on opposite shifts to the lily beetles, which are still about but decreasing with frequent application of size 10 natural insecticide

Lovely photo of the lilac, I hope none got caught in your clothing as you walked by

quirkydeptless

pink_poppy said:

Plants or weeds (AKA plants growing in the wrong place)??

I prefer not to use plantist terms like w**d and call mine wildflowers. Saves on me having to do w**ding too 

pink_poppy

Farway said:

Lovely photo of the lilac, I hope none got caught in your clothing as you walked by

I think it’s Dave that always seems to happen to 😂

I still remember the time we were visiting a Gertrude Jekyll garden in Northumberland and I really wanted that to happen with some gorgeous poppies that were a striking blue or purple colour. I just couldn’t bring myself to brush past them (& snap off a couple of seed heads 🙄)...

Thanks for the Solomon’s seal ID, Dave. They seemed to pop up overnight. I did try using the Google app to identify them and the Bugle, but it was trying to ID them in Russian so I’ve deleted it now.

Davesnave

pink_poppy said:

Farway said:

Lovely photo of the lilac, I hope none got caught in your clothing as you walked by

I think it’s Dave that always seems to happen to 😂

Yes, it's the unprotected pockets in modern coats that I blame, especially the ones in my fishing jacket, which has about 10 places where plant material might be discovered hours after a garden visit.

But one needs patience. A corokia that germinated a month ago wasn't prehistoric, but it was pre-pandemic. It's now almost 2cm high. That's quite a difference from just pressing 'Buy Now' on an internet web site, but substantially more MSE!

goldfinches

Waves excitedly to all above. Thankyou for all the lovely comments about the lilac photo. None of it fell into my pockets as I passed by due to the small size of the bush and its location in a very small front garden but I did make a note to return later in the year to try to harvest some seed. I have been trying to identify the variety online but so far I've drawn a blank so if anyone spots a similar flower with a label please do let me know.
I went for a walk this afternoon with a smaller group than usual due to the chancy weather and one of the other members took this shot.


That's the Thames in the background and this is one of a family of seven goslings that look about three weeks old.