My A-Z posts this year
are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies
- with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat
somewhat – wishing they were here.
Q – Quail, Quercus
It’s queer that I quailed when I came to ‘Q’ as although I
could find no connection in my garden, I remembered the one British bird that
qualifies.
Quail (A Pet!) |
I wandered out one
rainy day
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,
And heard a bird with merry joys
Cry 'wet my foot' for half the way;
I stood and wondered at the noise,
The quail is not a common bird but it often appears, and so
do its eggs, on restaurant menus. In many countries it is still hunted which
led me to this verse:
I
remember we used to have quails here,
Whose
peaceful morning calls would evoke
From
me a childish bout of smiling and giggling,
And
just to be polite, I'd return the call.
If you are wondering about what Quercus stands for then
perhaps this photo will help you make the connection.
Oak Trees (Growing at field boundaries) |
Live
thy Life,
Young
and old,
Like
yon oak,
Bright
in spring,
Living
gold;
There is a small wood that I pass most days of the week and
it contains a number of oak (Quercus) trees. As they are not readily accessible I have a
limited numbers of photos of them and then not the whole of the tree.
Oak Tree Leaves (April 2007) |
I don’t seem to have visited the wood in time to get a
picture of the acorns.
Quercus robur - foliage and acorns |
However in November 2007 I did find these:
Oak Apples |
Oak apple is
the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on
many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from 2–5 cm in diameter and
are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall wasp. They
are formed after the female wasp lays its eggs in developing leaf buds and are a
source of food for the wasp’s larva.
Poems:
- Quail’s Nest – John Clare http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/quail-s-nest/
- Quails – Michael Aliester Smith
- The Oak – Alfred Lord Tennyson http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-oak-2/
Photos:
- Quail (pet) – Samar; CC BY-SA 3.0
- Oak Trees – Evelyn Simak; Geograph project collection; CC BY-SA 2.0
- Oak foliage and acorns – Wikipedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0
2 comments:
Of course the fact that we eat quails and their eggs would account for their scarcity. Lots of quail in North Carolina still.
Hope your shingles are getting better.
JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE
Hi Bob .. love the Oak and all it contains .. a little (big) empire of its own!
Quail is good bird to come up with ..
Cheers Hilary
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