HTGTF

You'll have to forgive me for using this blog to mention my oh so clever daughter, Marianne.

She and her business partner Camila, who run a flower farm in Wood Green, have published a book which is selling fast in the flower growing world.  Its main aim is to encourage everyone to grow their own cut flowers at home rather than buying flowers imported from all over the world.  Grown not Flown.

In last Sunday's Sunday Times 'Books of the Year' supplement, Rachel de Thame included their book in the ten best gardening books of the year.  

And next Friday in Gardeners' World on BBC2, they will be featuring.

Here is a pic of them giving a demo at the Hampton Court Garden Festival last summer.  Marianne with the straight, fair hair on the right.  Camila's hair is dark and curly.

 

COME HAIL OR HIGH WATER

The stream, which has been dry for most of the time through summer and early autumn, becomes the River Filnore after heavy rainfall.

And we also have the Filnore Falls.

Sometimes the water can't get through the tunnel near post 20 

and the overflowing water sweeps over the top of the track, eroding the bank.

To cap it all, during the latest coppicing work morning on 25th November, a diabolical HAIL STORM drove the volunteers into a huddle under a bush.  But after it stopped they carried on undaunted - or only moderately daunted - by this meteorological fury.

 Photos: Alan Watts

DENIZENS

Hot chocolate and a piece of cake as a reward for re-building one of the dens in Cuckoo Pen.

Although there are leaves on the ground, there is a lot of green in the background.  

This outing occurred a month ago

 

LICHEN AND MOSS

In the centre of the picture below is a bright green clump of moss.  Mosses - and there are over 600 species in Britain - are primitive plants with no vessels to carry water and spores instead of seeds.  They like damp places and are often the first to colonise rocks and even concrete.  Here the moss - probably Fork Moss (Dicranum scoparium) - is growing on a dead ash branch.  

  

The grey-green growths are lichens (pronounced 'liken' rather than 'litchen').  I find mosses difficult to identify but there are over 1800 lichen species in Britain, so no chance.  They are a good indicator of air quality. As a general rule the more complex the formation the cleaner the air.  Crusty ones grow anywhere, leaf lichens need slightly cleaner air and the very whiskery ones require very unpolluted air.

In the picture below you can see fruiting bodies developing.

Lichens are mini-ecosystems that combine two or more organisms: a fungus species combined with either algae or cyanobacteria.  The fungus provides the structure and the other organisms, usually green, provide a food factory via photosynthesis.  The fungus is the benign jailor of the algae or bacteria.

Get yourself a 10x hand lens to discover the beauty of these tiny life forms.

 

DASHING ORANGE SARGENT

Again this is not in Filnore Woods though not far away.  

Standing on the green in front of Thornbury Tesco is this oriental Rowan in full autumn plumage.  It could be Japanese Rowan (Sorbus commixta) or one of its varieties like 'Embley' but I think with its big leaves and startling colour it is a Sargent's Rowan (Sorbus sargentiana) from China.  

If you miss seeing it like this have a look later at the winter buds which are sticky like Horse Chestnut sticky buds but bright red.

As you can see from the little plaque in front of the tree, it was planted by Thornbury Lions to commemorate the Twin Towers massacre.

 

NATURE IN TOWN

Not in Filnore Woods but nature is not confined to nature reserves - nor should it be.

I hadn't noticed this nest all year in the Amelanchier tree outside what used to be Wildings shop in Thornburry High Street.

But as the veil of leaves is discarded, the tree reveals where somebody - probably a pair of wood pigeons - has been looking after their nestlings.  

 

ROSEBAY SKELETONS

Our rosebay willowherb colony's beautiful pink flowers have shed their seeds.

They now stand defiantly against the coming winter with a different kind of beauty.