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.
T – Tulips, Thrush, Thistle, Treecreeper
Our tulips have no association with Amsterdam, unless the bulbs, at some time
long in the past, came from there.
 |
| Tulips |
No longer shy, as
days grow longer,
Raising their heads
They begin to flirt
Tulips dressed in
many a color
Breezes swirling
Each floral skirt
The songsters’ battle has been
joined between the blackbird and the thrush; this fellow is very melodious.
 |
| Song Thrush |
Within a thick and
spreading hawthorn bush
That overhung a
mole-hill large and round,
I heard from morn to
morn a merry thrush
Sing hymns to
sunrise, and I drank the sound
With joy; …
When I see any form of thistle in
the garden I must confess I root it out and dispatch it to the compost heap. In
the country however I always admire one like these.
 |
| Spear Thistles |
Against the rubber
tongues of cows and the hoeing hands of men
Thistles spike the
summer air
And crackle open
under a blue-black pressure.
The spear thistle is famous as the emblem of Scottish Kings.
Just before Easter I spent nearly
an hour trying to photograph a rare visitor to our garden, last seen in
December 2010. The verse that follows could not be more apt; I did not succeed.
 |
| Treecreeper |
Shy woodland birds of
humans they show respectful fear
They climb tree
trunks in search of insects and when human to them venture near
Of the tree trunk
they disappear to the other side
Of watchers eyes
they'd much prefer to hide.
Poems:
- Spring Flowers – Tulips – Mary Havran
- The Thrush’s Nest – John Clare
- Thistles – Ted Hughes
- Treecreepers – Francis Duggan
Photo:
- Common Treecreeper – Wikipedia Commons; CC BY-SA 3.0
