Late Summer Flowers

When I started this blog, one of my main concerns was that in the middle of August there would be very little new to photograph in Milton Country Park.  I had the impression that, in high summer, the only thing that was changing was the colour of the leaves on trees from a fresh vivid green to something else altogether more tired.  I was wrong, but understandably so: a superficial look as I walked through the park revealed very little that was new or fresh.  But, as so often in the course of this project, on closer inspection I found half or dozen or so flowers worthy of mention.

North of Deep Water - 9 August 2015

One such noteworthy flower was this clump of soapwort nestling at the base of some bushes surrounding the grassland to the north of Deep Water.  Like many things, once seen it was hard to miss on subsequent visits.

At the Water's Edge

Hall's Pond - 30 July 2015

My next three flowers all were found growing at the water's edge.  The first is meadowsweet seen here growing on the banks of Hall's Pond.  The name meadowsweet may have nothing to do with the meadow, but is a corruption of mead sweet, referring to its use in flavouring mead.  The plant's main claim to fame is as a source of salicin which was subsequently synthesised into Aspirin in the late 19th century;  the name Aspirin is derived from the old latin name for this flower: Spiraea ulmaria.

Dickerson's Pit Jetty - 6 August 2015

I have already shown a picture of water mint, but I think these growing among the reeds at the end of the jetty on Dickerson's Pit were so pretty that they deserved publication.

Todd's Pit - 17 August 2015

The final flower in this trio is common fleabane which can be found growing in the damp margins of the pits in the park.  This image was taken in one of the small inlets off the north bank of Todd's Pit, where it was growing among the reeds along with greater willow herb and purple loosestrife.

Easily Overlooked

 

Access Road - 28 August 2015

Far more easily overlooked than any of the flowers so far mentioned is wild basil.  This plant, growing only a few inches high, was off the beaten track on the access road that runs behind the toilets.

South Path - 4 August 2015

Low growing and never forming a large confluent mass, the clumps of yarrow scattered around the park easily escape notice. This intimate landscape illustrates the fertility of the soil in the park.  Despite rich soil lacking  the biodiversity of the poorer grassland of, for instance, chalk downland, in the space of a couple of very
crowded square metres shown here, there are at least five different species of plant.

White Dead Nettle

 

South of Park - 16 August 2015

White dead nettle seems to be one of those plants that flower all summer long if not longer.  At the time I took this photograph in the meadow at the south of the park, this was an isolated clump which attracted my attention for the way it was completed surrounded by stinging nettles.  Subsequently, white dead nettle has become a lot more noticeable in the area with a lot more of these plants, which seem to have become more conspicuous somehow, as if the stinging nettles have grown shorter. 

Blogs and Books

In a former life as a research scientist, I would have started any project such as this blog with a literature search to find out what others were doing in my chosen field.  With the carefree attitude of age I plunged straight in to writing this blog without any reference at all to other blogs.  Over the last six months, I have started to read both blogs and printed books that are of potential relevance.  So seven months and twenty posts later, I have started a list of blogs that I am reading to the home page of this site.  Blogger does not seem to offer me a good way of listing books, so I have also added a page of further reading including both blogs and books.

My first two blogs are both finished and their authors have moved on to other blogs.  Nevertheless, I think both are well worth the visit.

Fen-edge encounters is highly relevant and very local, as it documents the landscape, wildlife and occasionally people to be met rambling around Oakington.  It is almost completely text, but none the worse for that.

Boxmoor, naturally   The author is a volunteer on the Boxmoor estate and the blog documents, in text and photographs, the wildlife and landscape on the estate for a year.  This blog really does underline how much can be seen in a relatively small area for anyone prepared to look.

The first book on my list is also testimony to the amount of wildlife that can be found in a small area.  Meadowland: the private life of an English field by John Lewis-Stempel is the account of one year in a single English meadow complete with badgers, foxes, rabbits and moles.  I find it hard to believe that such variety could be found in a single field in the over-farmed fens.

Next: Water Weed  

Intimate Landscapes

'Intimate Landscapes' is a term used to describe landscape photographs which depict an area of only a few square metres or less.  The horizon is often absent from such photographs.

The term was first used to describe the work of Eliot Porter. Working in the 1950s and 1960s, Porter was one of the pioneers of colour landscape and natural history photographs.   In photographing the American landscape, nothing was too trivial for Porter's eye.  The 1979 exhibition of his work (and subsequent book of the same title) 'Intimate Landscapes' includes pictures with titles such as 'Foxtail Grass', 'Columbine Leaves', 'Long Stemmed Grasses' , and 'Raspberry Leaves and Grass'.  This gives a clear indication of the nature of the work and its range both in terms of area and subject matter covered by the photographs.  For further information on Eliot Porter this review gives a good introduction to his work.

Dickerson's Pit - 30 August 2015

It will come as no surprise to readers of this blog that Porter's work has been a major inspiration for my own studies in Milton Country Park.  I have already published quite a number of intimate landscapes so far in this blog.  In this post, I want to highlight my use of the genre to create images of  flowers in their environment such as the example above.   Here water mint can be seen flowering on the eastern bank of Dickerson's Pit amongst the nettles and brambles surrounding a muddy inlet (seen in the middle on the right of the picture).

Todd's Pit - 30 June 2015

My second example of hedge parsley growing alongside the path on the western side of Todd's Pit highlights another characteristic of many of my intimate landscapes: the use of a very low viewpoint.  By getting down to within a few centimetres of the ground, I can give stature and importance to fairly humble plants.  

Dickerson's Pit - 2 August 2015

My third example was taken on the bank of the inlet on the western shore of Dickerson's Pit.  This was one of only two clumps of montbretia in the park, both of which were within 20 metres of each other. My first attempt at this image was foiled when my pet labrador ate the subject! 

Hall's Pond - 6 September 2015

The bracket fungus in this image are growing on some of the logs floating in Hall's Pond.  The photograph was taken from above and the green background between the logs is duckweed.

Dickerson's Pit - 19 August 2015

For the picture above, I have returned to a spot on the eastern edge of Dickerson's Pit where I have already photographed yellow irises (After the May Flower) and purple loosestrife (Summer Flowers).  This time, I have focused on the hogweed growing nearer the path.  

Some authors have suggested that the horizon should not be visible in an intimate landscape.  However, as here, with a low viewpoint, the sky can be visible without the overall area covered by the image being very large.

Todd's Pit - 17 June 2015

Another feature of the intimate landscape is that it highlights the complexity of the environment at this scale.  In this picture, there are at least another five different plant species beside the dog daisy in an area no larger than six square metres.  In a future post on intimate landscapes, I will be looking at using this technique to document plant communities.

Next: Late Summer Flowers

 

Water

For most visitors, the open water of the three largest pits - Dickerson's Pit, Todd's Pit and Deep Water - is probably the main feature of Milton Country Park.  

Todd's Pit - 15 September 2015

The balcony of the Visitor Centre looks directly over Todd's Pit.

Despite its prominence, I have paid relatively little attention to water in this blog, mainly because there have been far more, and more significant, changes in the appearence on land compared to the changes in appearence of the open water and wetlands.  I want to take the opportunity in this post to look at the pits and other wetlands in the park at the end of summer.

Sandwiched between Dickerson's Pit and Todd's Pit is Hall's Pond, the fourth and much smaller area of open water.  

Hall's Pond - 15 September 2015

By the end of summer, Hall's Pond is full of water weed, including floating duckweed through which ducks, coots and swans leave winding trails of clear water.  As the photograph above shows, it also supports plenty of floating logs.  

Wetlands - 3 September 2015

Another large area is the Wetlands at the north east corner of the park.  By September, most of this area cannot be seen from the path because of the growth of the surrounding vegetation.  At the end of winter, a substantial area of clear water was visible from the south west corner of the Wetlands, but as this photograph shows, by September, the growth of reeds and water weeds has  reduced  this to a small area.  Even this small area can only be viewed through a screen of branches and leaves of the overhanging trees.

Tomkin's Mead - 15 September 2015

The other area of wetland in the park is Tomkin's Mead.  This has little clear water at any time.  By the time this photograph was taken, even after heavy rain, the stream through the Mead was reduced to a muddy trickle.

A Temporary Lake

 

By Hall's Pond - 17 July 2015

Overnight heavy rain had left this large puddle to reflect the trees to the east of Hall's Pond.

Intriguing Inlets

Some of the most visually interesting features of the pits are the inlets along their shores.

Todd's Pit - 30 June 2015

One of my favourites is this inlet off the north western corner of Todd's Pit.  I find the dark water with the criss cross of branches surrounded by varied and lush vegetation appealing.  In this picture it is difficult to tell what is real and what is reflection - the large dark diagonal branch is a reflection of the branch above.

There are far more small inlets off Dickerson's Pit particularly on its eastern shore.

Dickerson's Pit - 13 September 2015

However, this pond like inlet is off the western edge of the pit.

Dickerson's Pit - 12 June 2015

Many of the inlets like this on the eastern bank offer a view past willows and reeds across the pit to the opposite shore.  

Next: Intimate Landscapes






 


 

Meadow Flowers

To the left of the path that leads out of Milton Country Park and into Fen Road, there is a semi-circle of rough meadow.  At the time that I photographed there in mid to late July, most of the area was covered with long grass which was going to seed.

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 15 July 2015

In amongst the grass were patches of hedge parsley, which looks much like stunted cow parsley, but is a separate species flowering later than its larger cousin.  

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 26 July 2015

 Thistles were also very common in the same patch.

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 15 July 2105

The area did yield one surprise: a patch of lady's bedstraw.  I think this is the only place that this plant can be seen in the park.

All Change

 

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 15 July 2015

It was the smaller part of this area which was not covered by the taller grasses that prompted me to write this post.  The image above shows the area full of cinquefoil and field bindweed.  It is the sort of scene that is incredibly difficult to capture in a photograph.  To the naked eye, the bindweed stands out from a mass of yellow cinquefoil flowers.  The harsh reality, as revealed by the camera, is that most of the area is green sparsely punctuated with yellow with a few pink and white highlights.

But, for me, the real interest in this area is complete change that occurred in just eleven days.

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 26 July 2015

The whole area has been taken over by ribbed melitot, with no sign at all of either the bindweed or cinquefoil seen previously.  There was a hint of things to come in the earlier image, in that, on close inspection, ribbed melitot leaves are visible.  

With the twenty twenty vision of hindsight, I would have paid more attention to this area earlier.  Had there already been a similar transition?  Is this an annual occurrence, or is this a one off and the ribbed melitot is now the dominant plant?  I shall watch more closely next year.

Meadow by Fen Road Exit - 26 July 2015

The one plant that was not completely overwhelmed by the new regime was scentless mayweed.  

Continuing my interest in the origin of plant names, I was interested to find out why a plant flowering in July is called mayweed.  Was it a case of confusion with another similar plant?  Apparently, the plant gets its name from the Danish 'may' meaning maiden and not from the month of flowering, and was so called because it was used to treat complaints of young ladies.

Next: Water

Using New Eyes Part 3

"Give something a name and you think you know all about it".  This sentence has stayed in my memory long after either the subject of the lecture or the name of the lecturer who delivered it have been forgotten.  I remember it because there is more than a grain of truth in it.  But what has it got to do with photographing Milton Country Park?

A name, as the aphorism implies, carries with it a whole baggage train of associations.  These associations, both positive and negative,  profoundly influence how we look at an object, our attitude towards it, and, more fundamentally, whether we notice it at all.   Here are a couple of examples from plants found in the park.

By Fen Road Exit - 19 May 2015

Anthriscus sylvestris
Commonly called cow parsley.  Cow has connotations of a dim, lumbering beast.  It is also a derogatory term for a woman.  By implication, this plant is not a fine beauty or worthy of much attention.

It is also called Queen Anne's lace.  Now it is regal and associated with the fine and delicate material.  I don't know for certain, but I would hazard a guess which name is used when this plant is in a Chelsea show garden.  I certainly looked at, and photographed, Queen Anne's lace. 

Wetlands - 6 June 2015

Leucathemum vulgare
The dog daisy.  Not a plant to be admired and only fit for the dogs.  A plant I can't help but apologise for liking.


As ox-eye daisy, it is far more romantic conjuring up images of dewy eye Jersey cows looking dolefully over field gates in pastoral Devon.


If it is the exotic you are looking for, look no further: L.vulgare is the moon daisy.  With a name like that, who wouldn't go out of their way to find it?  I did and I found it here in Milton Country Park!

All Anglo Saxon

I have been very careful throughout this blog to use traditional anglo-saxon names for the plants that I feature.  This is for two reasons: firstly, because I think that the use of the latin name implies a degree of accuracy of identification that I do not want to claim; and, secondly, because traditional names sound as if they have some deep romantic meaning rooted in English folklore.

I have been doing some research into the origins of the names of some of the flowers found in the park.

South of Park - 23 August 2015

Nettle
Here is a surprise.  I expected the name to be associated with its irritating sting.  But it is not. Instead, the name is derived from a word meaning to sew.  It is a plant from which fibres were once made and used for sewing.

Orchard - 22 August 2015

Black Horehound
Again, I was  totally wrong in my assumption that the name was somehow associated with the vile smell of the leaves when they are bruised.  The reference gives two possible derivations: hoary honey or a corruption of the latin Urinaria  as the plant was used to treat strangury and dysuria.  And the black?  Because it has dark flowers.

Orchard - 19 August 2015

Toadflax
Finally, and most whimsically, toadflax, so named because of the alleged similarily of the flower to a little toad.  Alternatively, because toads were said to shelter beneath the plant.  

More prosaically, the flax part of the name is derived from the shape of the leaves resembling those of flax.




Queen Anne's lace 
The derivation of this name is worthy of mention.  The story goes that Queen Anne was touring the countryside, visiting her subjects, when she saw these flowers lining the roadside.  Mistakenly, she believed that the locals had draped lace over the road verges to welcome her.  Hence the name.

As a child I knew this flower as keck (used entirely in a derogatory fashion).  This name apparently comes from an old English work 'keek' meaning to peep or to spy, and relates to fact that one can look through the hollow stems of the plant.

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This shows that it is all too easy to overlook the interest and the beauty in the plants around us simply because of the names we give them.  It is also certain that I will never look at any of the plants mentioned in this post the same again, now I know something of the origins of the names I use for them. 

Next: Meadow Flowers

Bridges

Anywhere there are paths and water, there are invariably bridges to carry the paths over the water.  Milton Country Park with its ten bridges is no exception.

Dickerson's Pit - 12 June 2015

In the height of summer, the bridges, like this one over the inlet at the north end of Dickerson's Pit, almost disappear in the surrounding vegetation.  The bridge forms a small focal point in the rich tapestry of various shades of green and contrasting textures typical of the English countryside at this time of year.

North End of Dickerson's Pit - 19 August 2015

In this image, the same rich vegetation is encroaching onto the bridge itself, and making it difficult to see the water below.

Bridging Environments

Tomkin's Mead - 19 June 2015

In many cases a watercourse marks the boundary between two areas or environments.  In this case, the bridge spans a small stream marking the boundary between the main park and Tomkin's Mead.  Here it is shown from the Tomkin's Mead side looking towards the rest of the park.  In the summer, the visitor walking through Tomkin's Mead over this bridge and into the main park would notice little difference in the environment.  The trees and bushes are as luxuriant in both areas.  Perhaps, the most noticeable difference, is that the paths in Tomkin's Mead are a lot muddier.

South East Corner of Dickerson's Pit - 29 June 2015

In contrast, this bridge over the thirteenth public drain links two very dissimilar environments.  This photograph was taken from Remembrance Meadow with its war memorial, mown grass, and formal arrangement of trees.  Over the bridge is very different.  The path is lined by some of the tallest trees in the park, in no particular pattern, and many of which lean at crazy angles.  Beneath the trees, fallen trees and logs lie rotting in amongst a carpet of brambles, ivy and nettles.  For dogs, the bridge marks a similar transition from the constrained on-lead environment of Remembrance Meadow to the off-lead free running regime of the park north of the drain. The trees on the banks of the drain, dark against the sunlit vegetation behind, form a curtain between the two areas.

Bridge and Divide

Hall's Pond - 15 June 2015

As much as bridges join, they also divide.  Walk over a bridge and the water beneath is split between that which is on the left and that which is on the right.  Between upstream and downstream.  Mostly, the differences are not significant, but in Milton Country Park the two sides can have very different characters.

In the direction of view, to the right of the bridge shown here is the open water of the majority of Hall's Pond.  To the left is a small semi-circle of water at the base of an amphitheatre of trees and which is always dark.

Similarly the first two bridges shown in the post are very different on their left and right hand side.  In the first image of the bridge over Dickerson's Pit, nearer to the viewer is a small inlet barely visible in the picture, beyond the bridge is the wide open expanse of the main body of water.  In the second image, the bridges span two channels between Dickerson's Pit (on the right) and the smaller Deep Water (on the left).

Next: Using New Eyes Part 3

Fruitful Promise

Summer in Milton Country Park is a time of little outward change. The trees and bushes which dominate the landscape of the park seem to be unaltered for months, with only the green of the leaves becoming tired and losing its spring freshness. However, on closer inspection, the fruit which will make such a spectacular contribution to the autumn display is steadily growing.

Path by Wetlands - 2 August 2015

A Sprint From Flower to Fruit

Prior to looking through my photographs for this post, I had not realised how much the time it takes fruit to develop from the flower varies.  Some of the latest flowering bushes are among the first to fruit.

It seems the blackberry had barely lost its petals, before fully formed fruit was visible, some of which was already turning red.  Apparently the time for a blackberry from petal to fruit averages just 45 days.  The image above backs this up, as I photographed this bush, in bloom, on the 29th June. 

South of Park - 4 August 2015

Another late flowering bush with early ripening fruit is the elder.  Not quite as fast as the blackberry, but the bush pictured above was in flower in mid June. 

In the Slow Lane

In contrast, the fruit of some of the earliest flowering trees and bushes is amongst the last the ripen.

By Fen Road Exit - 26 July 2015

The cherry plum is the earliest of all the fruit blossom.  Here, three months after flowering in March, the fruit is all green.

Southern End of Park - 31 July 2015

Similarly, the hawthorn berries show no sign of ripening.  I don't know if it is just the size of fruit, but the hawthorn berries appear to be a lot sparser than the cherry plums.  Yet both bushes had masses of confluent blossom.

By Fen Road Exit - 26 July 2015

These apples at least show some signs of ripening.

It is interesting to speculate as to what evolutionary selection pressures have led to the late flower - early fruit, and the early flower - late fruit strategies.

Hazelnuts

By Fen Road Exit - 23 July 2015

In literature, hazelnuts are an essential part of the English countryside. Yet, until I started this project, my only contact with these nuts was with the pre-packed variety to be found on supermarket shelves. This may have something to do with my upbringing in the treeless fens of northern Cambridgeshire. My wife called these cobnuts, which is apparently the name for a variety of cultivated hazelnuts.

NEXT:  Bridges