My theme this year will be wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few of the wild flowers that I know.
I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.
A-Z Challenge 2016 - A
As a boy in the second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s I used to walk our dog up this road.
I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.
A-Z Challenge 2016 - A
As a boy in the second half of the 1940s and the early 1950s I used to walk our dog up this road.
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| Barn near Ketton on Barrowden Road |
(Ketton in the English County of Rutland was where I was born)
A short distance past the barn the road turns a sharp right towards Tixover. However a dirt road continues straight on.
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| Barrowden Road looking towards Fox Covert |
On the right the verge is wide enough for the horse-drawn caravans to be parked by visiting gipsies. I was under instructions to be careful there as they were always trying to 'buy' our dogs.
I don't remember the road being so poor back then and I knew Fox Covert under the name of Barrowden Woods.
In spring the woodland floor used to be covered with white flowers rather like this.
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| Anemone nemorosa (in forest near Radziejowice, Poland) |
The common name for these flowers is the wood anemone or windflower. In Greek, anemōnē means "daughter of the wind", from ánemos the wind god.
They have always been anemones to me.
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| Anemone nemorosa (Wood Anemone) |
The woods were also a good place to find wild primroses - but they don't begin with the letter 'A'.
Photo attributions
- Barn near Ketton on Barrowden Road and Barrowden Road near Ketton - 23 June 2006, ex geograph.org.uk, by Kate Jewell, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Anemone nemorosa in forest near Radziejowice on Poland - 30 March 2007, by Tomasz Kuran (aka Meteor 2017), CC BY-SA 3.0
- Anemone nemorosa - March 2007, Wikipedia Commons, by Lilly M, CC BY-SA 3.0
13 comments:
Good start this year Bob
Wood anemones look so delicate as they blow in the wind yet they seem to endure quite harsh conditions, too. Wind flower is a very apt description for them. Must check our local woods next time I walk there. The season whould be early this year and I have seen them as early as 31st March in the past.
Ann
love those wildflowers.
A few years ago I visited the countryside I spent many a summer day as a tyke. Instead of irrigated fields its either concrete, asphalt, or desert...since the area lost its irrigation source. Talking about a shocker.
I so enjoyed this walk and memories shared along the country roads of your childhood. Beautiful field of anemones and lovely history of their naming. Stunning photographs. Thanks for this look into your Wildflower theme for AtoZ.
Sue at CollectInTexas Gal
Daughter of the wind... I like that. I always enjoy your posts during the challenge, Bob!
Lovely photos! I'm not overly familiar with plant and flower names, so this has great educational value. Thanks for dropping by The Doglady's Den earlier. I checked out your similar theme from 2014 and enjoyed it a lot!
The roads look like a wonderful place to walk, with or without a dog. I have some little white flowers that come up in the spring but they aren't Anemones. I don't know what they are!
Finding Eliza
Every photo is a beautiful view into nature! Especially your first photo where you used to walk your dog as a boy! Very pretty!
Used to love to see the woods covered with flowers like that. It can happen here with trilliums. Very pretty.
I used a random number generator to pick some blogs from the A-Z challenge, and I'm glad to have found yours. We have some purple anemone off our back deck, and they are one of the earliest bloomers in our yard (in Oregon, western US).
I also really like that you are able to show us a current photo of a road you walked down decades ago!
Spring flowers are so glorious. Lovely post.
Ann Bennett @annbennett12
Too Much To Choose From
Science Ladybug
Hi Bob - I remember anemone woods as a kid - delightful greening up, gently tumbling stream, mossy wood and this spread of wood anemones and celandine - wonderful photos again .. cheers Hilary
I didn't know there name, glad to be able to share it with people now. Thanks
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