An artist and author drawing inspiration from the natural world. Observing its detail and drama with a sense of wonder. Well-being advocate. T1D. Lyme’s.
When I’m less able to get out and about, my phone becomes a magic portal, transporting me closer to nature. I haven’t got much further than my home screen today, but that’s okay. I hope this image leads your mind somewhere beautiful too. With gratitude for all good wishes shared.
On rare occasions throughout the year, I record all the plants flowering in our meadow (once an agricultural field). Mindfully, I pick one of each that can spare a bloom. Today’s that rare and special day! I counted 50 species, most of which are represented here.
#WildflowerHour
Every month, throughout the year, I choose a day to record all the plants flourishing in our meadow - once an agricultural field. Appreciatively, I pick one of each that can spare a bloom. Today I counted 78 species, most of which are represented here.
#WildflowerHour
#rewild
💚
I’m counted 'vulnerable', distancing myself from socialising and shopping. But look what I discovered in nature’s 'sensory shopping aisles' aka country lanes of Dorset today. Primroses flourishing deep within the hedges, out of harms way. Bit like me really! Keep safe everyone 💚
A fairy sailboat, granted safe harbour in our wilds, readying to set sail into 2023. With hand painted silk Marsh fritillary sails, she carries a precious cargo of Devils-bit-scabious seeds; the butterflies food plant. Wishing you safe harbour and fair seas in 2023!
#HappyNewYear
Counting my blessings - including this beautiful encounter with a leveret at the weekend. Happy
#30DaysWild
everyone. May this month… and the rest! - be nature blessed 💚
#Blessings
#SolaceInNature
#hare
63 wild and free! The wildflowers of our meadow - gathered mindfully. Indeed, I missed a few: Pineapple weed, Greater burnet, Bloody cranesbill, Honeysuckle, Hogweed, Campion, Tansy. 70 - Yay! From maize field to meadow. With nurture, amazing things can happen!
#wildflowerhour
💚
Fascinating post by
@RobGMacfarlane
made me think, we should weave 'Stray' into the renaming of our field. Why? There’s a Sidhe (fairy house) hidden in it! 2001, before we set about re-wilding, it was an unimaginative, intensively farmed field, namely, disappointing! Now look!
Inspiration on my doorstep. We have lovingly restored a hectare of intensively farmed land to heartland for Nature. Today I counted 40 species of wildflower, pictured here 37 beauties which could spare a bloom. Imagine the species which, in turn count upon them!
#WildflowerHour
Once upon a time, 7 years ago, our wildlife garden story began. Then a dormant field, once cultivated for maize and grass, it now hosts 100 wild plants and flowers; like blessings, we’ve just counted them! Herewith, just a few!
@30DaysWild
@wildflower_hour
This morning, a miracle happened! Peacock butterflies emerged in Nettles Nursery. Mammals are born, birds hatch - butterflies ‘eclose’. When they first , they’re crumpled up - soft and vulnerable like exquisitely painted wet tissue paper.
#metamorphosis
#NaturalWonder
#nature
🦋
Counting wildflower blessings in our nature garden. Across the meadow; along the banks, in dips and woodland spaces; I do so every month. Today, 77; though, I’m overjoyed to say, I lost count! Some are yet to flower, some have gone to seed; treasured away for another year.
For
#wildflowerhour
29 different species flowering in our garden. My cup runneth over! The joy of gardening for nature is that every plant could generously spare a bloom. Except one, Jack-by-the-hedge, all reserved for the Orange tips fluttering about in the warm Spring sunshine!
Drifting through the meadow daydreaming, yet wide awake to the beauty of it all. A million, million wildflowers swooning over the sun. Myriad insects, whirring, springing, chirping, flouncing, buzzing. The scent of Lady’s bedstraw, soft as a kiss, mingling, lingering in the air.
I spent a blissful
#WildflowerHour
in our wildlife garden this afternoon, counting every wild plant still in flower; 33 species in total! Herewith, an array of those that could spare a bloom.
‘Happy Autumn wildflower hours everyone!’ ~ Spot the wildflower missing its name!
“I believe I can fly - I believe I can touch the sky”! I released 3 more pristine Peacock butterflies today - casting them into the meadow like wishes. Now to include them in my
#BigButterflyCount
I’ll be counting my blessings too! 🦋
#GratefulHeart
#NaturalWonder
#butterflies
People often say, I wear my heart on my sleeve. Well, they’re not wrong! Footage (armography!) of me releasing
#butterflies
into the wild from Nettles Nursery today, where I lovingly nurtured them through metamorphosis, from tiny caterpillars to life on the wing.
#NaturalWonder
In praise of 'fine and dandy dandelions!' Brimful of nectar and pollen, seedy snack food of birds... full of vitamins and minerals for humans to nibble. Several prides of dandy-lions roam our wilds. I couldn’t be prouder!
#wildflowerhour
#SolaceInNature
@NearbyWild
@joshual951
For
#wildflowerhour
- says I, legitimising an idle hour or so in our wildlife garden this afternoon, delighting in the wildflowers. Gathering a single stem of each, I counted 42, the hairiest of all, Bristly ox-tongue!
Arranged like a wildflower banquet; a feast for the senses!
Every month, I record, and rejoice in all the plants flowering in our
#meadow
sharing my flowery findings
#WildflowerHour
. Herewith, September’s array. 68 species! Chicory, Dandelion, Hoary plantain and Water mint also starring, but missing. Blaming the heat for my forgetfulness!
A minute in the meadow. One could say, it’s a wet and miserable day, but it’s merely the meadow quenching her thirst! The wildlife ponds are all topped up - brimful of life. My clothes are drenched through, but I feel brimful of love!
#rainydayjoy
#positivity
#meadow
#nature
Since my eye surgery, not unsurprisingly, I’ve been struggling see! But I’ve been persevering with my
#NaturePhotography
. Staggering about like a patched up pirate, it’s been more like fishing on the high sea, admiring my haul at home. Look what I caught today: Fairy
#fungi
Day 20
@30DaysWild
A fairy on my fingertips! A beautiful white plume moth; their caterpillars feed on bindweed, a plant I imagine covering Sleeping beauty’s castle, confirming, to my mind that they are indeed fairies in disguise... and inclining more fondly towards bindweed!
Today I found a pot of treasure! - as you’ll bear witness, a finding confirmed by way of winners smile and golden glow! Terracotta, brimful to overflowing with soft, dewey, emerald green moss, what’s not to treasure!
#nature
#imagination
#positivity
#moss
‘Consider the flowers of the field’ Today I counted 98 different species of wildflower in our re-wilded habitat; everyone a blessing! Reservedly felt for the bristly, prickly, invasive ones!Countless species of creature delight in each and every one!
@30DaysWild
@wildflower_hour
Today I counted 46 different species of wildflower here. Before we began gardening for wildlife, our habitat was so impoverished, it could only afford to offer us maybe 6, including Dock! How generously Nature reciprocates love and attention
#wildflowerhour
43 pretties pictured.
Today felt somber; overcast weather, downcast news. Tugging on my wellies defiantly, I stepped out into the gloom. Such joy recovered! All this wildflower beauty, sheltering in our meadow.
#SolaceInNature
#wildflowerhour
#staysafe
#seedheads
Feeling a little seedy (an irresistible pun!) I was unable to join in yesterday’s
#wildflowerhour
Much better today, our meadow insisted I post friends and followers this, love from Mother Nature. She so appreciates the attention she receives that hour every Sunday! 💚
For this weeks wonderful
#WildflowerHour
#InTheMeadow
- those flowering in ours. I counted 65 species before rain stopped play, 53 of which could spare a bloom. To friends and followers, especially those of meandering meadow paths, a flat lay bouquet, from our meadow, with love!
A tussie mussie of wildflowers picked from our meadow this afternoon. I counted 25 species still flowering 23 of which could spare a bloom, the other two, too precious to pick, Catchfly, I think, and a umbel of hogweed, silvery white like a firework in the gloom!
#wildflowerhour
#Wildflowerhour
26 different species of wildflower flourishing in our wildlife garden today. Joys of Spring... each and every one; even the goosefoot!
#SolaceInNature
#Spring
So excited to receive an advance copy of my new book - it’s hard to sum it up - think this clip just about does! Thanks to all at MERRELL
@hughmerrell
for making this moment a reality and
@brigit_strawbridge
for writing the forward for me. Look! Our names are on the front cover!
Celebrating bright new horizons, making a nature mandala. I’ve exciting news to share later this week! From the centre out: dandelion, beech leaves, sulphur tufts, oak and sycamore leaves and wild iris berries - encircled by natures love!
#NatureMandala
#creativity
#mindfulness
Tread softly! Don’t be too eager to tidy away leaf litter, one mans litter is another creatures luxury! Leaving leaves beneath plants and trees provides valuable habitat for the creatures with whom we share this planet. Keep wild nearby.
@NearbyWild
#naturegarden
#wildlifegarden
#wildflowerhour
#grasschallenge
The flowering grasses of Madrigal meadow. My favourites, Quaking grass, with it’s beautiful heart shaped flower heads and Grass Vetchling, though I guess the latter is cheating, botanically speaking! Day 6
#30DaysWild
What a grey and gloomy day! To kindle a sense of warmth and festive cheer, a peep inside our Fairy house, where love and fairy lights sparkle not just at Christmas time, but all year!
#Christmas
#Fairies
#solace
#wildflowerhour
#inthemeadow
#magnificentmeadows
Meandering through our meadow and it’s fringes, I counted over 77 wildflower species; truly magnificent to have lost count! I once waded into the same space, heavy with docks, thistles and nettles emerging stinging, not singing! 💚
Do you have a sunny patch of nettles nearby? Butterflies depend upon them for their caterpillar young. Often decried as weeds and destroyed, if only they could be reimagined as plants that flower in butterflies and found a little room in gardens and in human hearts.
#30DaysWild
For
#wildflowerhour
- the first wildflowers of our wilds 2022. Wishing everyone here a Happy New Year - may it be wonderfully wildflowery!
#NewYearPlantHunt
Yesterday I ventured out for the first time since taking ill, visiting Martin down. Still poorly, a couple of miles felt like crossing a continent, but what a wonderful world! One such wonder, male Chalk hill blues ‘mud puddling’. As the saying goes: ‘if life gives you lemons!’
‘Nature’s pallet’ ~ Springs first wildflowers. Gathered mindfully in our nature garden and lovingly arranged. Every bloom more precious to me as I contend with challenges to my sight. I hope your eyes have alighted on the beauty of nature this week too.
#WildflowerHour
#Spring
💚
Before Ciarán stormed in, snatching up wildflowers still bravely blooming in our habitat, and casting them asunder, I gathered up these beauties. 22 species, plus hips, berries, fungi and other treasures! Can you spot the wasp and the snail?
#WildflowerHour
#NaturesTreasures
'British summer time ends'. Duly noted! Despite the somber undertone, there are still 'wildflower hours' to enjoy. As the seasons turn, a treasure hunt unfolds, mapping across the wintry months ahead, marking the spots where precious wildflowers still bloom.
#wildflowerhour
On certain days throughout the year, I mindfully gather a stem of every plant flowering in our wild garden. A hectare of land, restored to
#Nature
. 33 different species pictured here, with more now in flower. Next ‘
#Wildflower
array day’, they’ll come into play!
#WildflowerHour
Because I’ve been blessed to experience so many
#bestbutterfly
moments this year, here’s just one more. Well, maybe a few more to follow over the coming days! This is the ceiling of Nettles Nursery, fluttering with life! Butterfly blessings to one and all
@savebutterflies
💚
#wildflowerhour
#fruits
Nature’s bounty.
A fruitful saunter around our wildlife garden this afternoon. Blackbird, Wood pigeon, Green woodpecker, Snail, Wasp, Bee and countless other wild kin insisted on a mention; it is their picnic after all!
#nature
#autumn
#SolaceInNature
Shh; I’ve been secretly sheltering from the rain in the Sidhe all day; a house within a hollow hill where, according to folklore and legend, fairies dwell. Alternatively one could say I’ve been off with the fairies all day! Its true, mine is a world of nature, imagination and art
Oh the Summer splendour of seed heads! An array gathered from our wilds. For those who appreciate me naming the species, I promise to pen them in tomorrow and re-share. By the time I’d placed the last seed head, my studio had become stiflingly hot! 💚
#SeedHeads
@wildflower_hour
My word of the day: Vivipary. I imagine it being chanted out loud with the tap of a magic wand! It’s truly magical to me to see the spell working. Viviparous germination occurs when seeds develop before they detach from the parent plant. Here it is in cowslips. Nature is magic!
Paths to recovery, gently winding through our medicine field. In Welsh, there’s a phrase for it: Cae Ysbyty - or hospital field. Traditionally, new borns and sick creatures were grazed there, aiding recovery and health. Grazing with all my senses, the same is true for me.
#meadow
So excited to share that my new book is coming soon! Seek solace, and forage for inspiration in the natural world, gently guided by:
The Nature of Creativity - to be published next Spring 🦋
This morning I walked ‘the long way round’ to work, determined to seek and share something wildly wonderful, especially with folks feeling locked down or dispirited. Joy of joys, look what I discovered! Peeping out from leafy undercover, diamond bright Snowdrops and Aconites!
100 years ago in 1921 insulin was discovered. Back then it was exceptional for people with T1D to live for more than a year or two. The discovery has been one of the greatest medical discoveries of the 20th Century. The lives saved immeasurable, as is the gratitude in my heart.
"I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate.' A queer half-knowing, half-humorous look came with a green flicker into his eyes." Treebeard - J.R.R.Tolkien
Ambrose and me. Friends for years, before he deemed to tell me his name
#NationalTreeWeek
#woodland
I seem to have been chasing my tail all day. Actually I’ve been herding caterpillars, but that’s another story! Time to relax and take a stroll through our meadow; a perfect wildflower while, thought I’d share it with you!
#365DaysWild
#wildflower
@MeadowInGarden
@DorsetWildlife
Slim pickings today for
#WildflowerHour
Our five mile walk, a bit of a trudge. But just as I thought, ‘not a flower is out’, as sweetly as a peck on the cheek, this little pink kiss was seen - and felt! Female hazel catkins, lipstick-pink, dotted throughout the hedgerows.
A moment in our meadow this
#NationalMeadowsDay
From intensively managed agricultural land, supporting ryegrass and just a handful of other plants many consider pernicious weeds, to a wildflower meadow rich in precious species: plants, insects, birds and other wee beasties!
'Twitter-time' somehow placed a bookmark between this weeks pages. I kept turning beyond it, from one pressing task to the next! Now I find it’s days since I posted or truly interacted. I’m so appreciative of the kinship I have discovered here. Adonis blue (Monday) in gratitude.
A wild flower pick-me-up! Shared here just in case you need one too!
Sparingly picked from beside my studio steps. Keep Nature nearby, then it’s always there for you when you need a pick-me-up!
#solaceInNature
#wildflowers
@NearbyWild
@wildflower_hour
Captured though the Fairy House window this morning, a dainty charm of Goldfinches enjoying the Knapweed, still standing in the tousled wilds of our garden. Such moments make me truly wild at heart! Wishing everyone a wildly wonderful New Year!
#nature
#birds
#Happy2020
Bud of life. A butterfly eclosing flourishing into life as an adult. Little by little, from her engorged pipette like body, she’ll pump pigment and energy into her wings. Tomorrow they’ll be strong enough to carry her into the meadow. Another 118 released today!
@savebutterflies
For
#WildflowerHour
A wildflower for every hour around the clock, picked from our nature garden this afternoon. Thank you
@wildflower_hour
for establishing this special hour, every Sunday evening between 8 and 9 o’clock, enabling us to share the love! A truly wonderful community
For
#wildflowerhour
#thewinter10
A fairy posy from our wilds including: Lesser stitchwort, Daisy, Knapweed, Herb robert, Melilot, Hawkweed, Yarrow, Wild carrot, Wild strawberry and a dainty naturalised Geranium... wild at heart!
Some may notice my absence here from time to time. If you miss me
#ThankYou
you. I miss you too! Hospital appts/treatments continue to divert me, as I follow my road to
#recovery
, as do nature’s signs and wonders. I choose
#nature
’s sign posts & gentle diversions whenever I can!
Diagnosed with
#LymeDisease
my recovery feels imperceptibly slow. Yet I perceive such healing beauty about me, such sanctuary in the habitat we have evolved, nature and imagination at its heart. Our Sidhe hidden within a hollow hill
#SolaceInNature
Sorry filming wobbly, like me!
As some folks know, I’ve suffered the odd health blow! But I’m still standing! Grateful for love and to Nature. Embracing me. Keeping me strong. Next week, I’m having surgery to restore my sight. Reaching out to help others facing challenges, fearful and uncertain of the unknown.
Day 22
#30DaysWild
- A fairy on my finger tip! A beautiful Plume moth, it’s favoured larval food plant is Bindweed, beauty enough for me to think it less of a bind!
#moth
The weather has been less than merry and bright here today; broody, pigeon grey skies, shaken down by squally showers. Defiantly, I ventured out in my wellies anyway, whereupon I came across this beautiful, previously undiscovered planet! I named it Planet Lichen; obviously. 💚
Butterflies blown like kisses from my fingertips out into the meadow today. The last of this years second brood of Small tortoiseshell’s lovingly nurtured in Nettles Nursery.
#BigButterflyCount
#butterflies
#nature
Plantains grow on the path, on the road, on the doorstep. Downtrodden or you crushed, they just keep on living. 'Sympathetic magic' therefore suggests, a herb so powerful must heal crushing, tearing and bruising! When the going gets tough the tough get growing! A herb for life!