The Met. Office reckoned it was the warmest and sunniest May on record; it was also dry with measurable rainfall on only eight days. Forecasts of torrential thunder-storms came day after day during the last week but all we got were a couple of brief showers on 30th and 31st. The duneland water-table therefore fell...
I borrowed BioBank’s copy of “Poland” to try and resolve the mystery of its identity from a fragment I had taken – comprising fully intact leaves- and found myself keying out Saxifraga umbrosa (Pyrenean saxifrage) , or Saxifrage nivalis (Alpine saxifrage). I was really attracted to the latter because “Poland” refers to “the long wavy...
The plants in the cracks of the pavements and brickwork begin to lose their fascination with the arrival of those early harbingers of summer –the Swifts (May 9th)- and thoughts of trips farther afield come centre stage. A trip to Ness Gardens, with friends, over the May Day Bank Holiday, reminded one that even...
April 2018 really broke the mould. Since the millennium, we have got used to prolonged droughts, with April showers a distant memory. This month, measurable rain fell on 12 days and, although it was mainly colder than average, there was a heatwave from 18th to 21st with the highest April temperatures (in London) since 1949....