Flowers

Before Sunset

/ Leya / 13 kommentarer

Just before sunset, they walk out in the open – the forest animals. This hot and dry May and beginning of June – I am glad to follow their example…

Driving to the forest I pass many fields, and all of them are being heavily irrigated… We all want new potatoes this summer of course! Soon watering will be restricted – in many parts of Sweden it already is.

Most summer flowers come and go fast. When I visited here a week ago – the flora was totally different.

Being a wild animal is never easy, not even in the summer. I do hope there will be rain soon – all brooks and puddles are dried out.

Two hours’ walk, then time to return. Birds are still singing, but I guess in a couple of weeks the forest will be more quiet as feeding the little ones now comes first.

On driving back, this gentleman was sitting in the field, just keeping an eye on me. I stopped the car to see his ears move around – they are quite lovely – his ears.

Behind me, about the first clouds seen in a month, are elegantly sailing over the fields.

And the farmers are still working – or their machines are – to give us food on the table.

Thursday Thoughts – Mindful Moments

/ Leya / 12 kommentarer

If you know me…you know that the forest is my home. These days are wild orchid days, and when the forest opens up to the light and the stillness of the wetlands and its inhabitants…I will be there for short mindful moments before sunset.

Walking slowly, not to disturb anyone or anything, I follow the boardwalk between nodding armies of  cotton grass or bog cotton.

The orchids here are mostly Dactylorhiza with subspecies – marsh orchids. Listera ovata in the middle, lowest row.

Listera ovata

In the setting sun, the rays shine enigmatic life to everything growing. The tiny purple marshlocks glow and the grasses throw flames of greens your way.

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I rest in the middle of everything – feeling blessed

Nature First – Outing With Experts

/ Leya / 18 kommentarer

I was fortunate enough to join an excursion with the local biologists here in town (I am a member of the organization too). By bus we went to the east coast and to the south of Skane: Haväng, Stenshuvud, Fyledalen. We had a great day, despite the heat, and the interesting finds were numerous. I did not bring my heavy camera though – 30 degrees C is too much already. No more extra weight, it was enough with the bottles of water.

Where is the lark…?

So today, water and the pair of binoculars was my best equipment.

Among others, we spotted three Golden Eagles, a very rare species of lark – the tawny pipit (Anthus campestris) and Dianthus arenarius – sandnejlika – a species that can only be found here in Skane.

A pasque flower overlooking the dunes – and the group members…
Lathyrus japonicus (common names sea pea, beach pea…)
Anthericum liliago (St Bernard’s lily)
Dianthus arenarius

We were not allowed to enter the orchid fields, but could admire them from a distance.

I love orchids, and wild orchids in Sweden are very beautiful too. However, when the Pasque Flowers are over…their beauty is perhaps even more enhanced. I could not resist a minor collage…

or the serene beauty of the black-veined moth (Siona lineata).

A lovely day out with precious friends!

Thursday Thoughts – Summer in May

/ Leya / 29 kommentarer

Strange – Summer in May – 30 degrees C today

Late evening biking by the sea – not a cloud in four weeks

Swimmers everywhere, enjoying the coolness of it

Past the old Blekinge cottages – just have to stop for a photo. Love these…

Picking buttercups

Back at our own beach – 23 degrees C, still 10 degrees more than normal temperature

Completely calm sunset and not a mosquito – yet

Bathing – water 18 degrees. Lovely of course, but

– I do not know if I like it – or not. This month of May was the hottest and driest ever in Sweden. And we are not alone. In July this could have been possible though…

On the news they said our newborn storks will starve to death, and I guess that applies to many birds and other animals who only eat living things. There are no frogs, and the worms are digging deep to survive. The birds cannot reach them.

Please let there be rain. And, what about Africa.

 

My Garden Today

/ Leya / 27 kommentarer

This hot and dry month is going to be the warmest since we started the statistics some hundred years ago. And there is no rain ahead…so as the lilacs and other flowering trees and bushes faded away these last weeks, I decided to photograph my garden – as long as it lasts.

Walk with me, and I will try to give you some pearls from my garden today.

My fallen and dying trees are all in front of the house. They are with me still – Birds are nesting in the old apple tree and the one lying down still gives us apples.

The old bushes with very tiny little roses are some of my favorites – given to me by the little man with the fantastic Dream Garden – now sold. (You who have followed my garden posts will know who he was.) From that dream garden I also have some rare and unusual tulips – see the header and the first one in the gallery below.

The lilies and poppies and other well known flowers live happily together on the other side of the house, hidden from the street. I like to think of it as a secret garden…(I truly loved that novel)

But the shining stars this week are the Irises. Under their massive canopy, you just cannot get enough of their colours and shapes – the intense green and the just as intense orange, yellow and lilac. Their every bud is a slender wonder in a sea of elegance.

 

 

Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Flowers

/ Leya / 3 kommentarer

Cee is a master of flower portraits, so I thought I would try a picture of my own Irises – all together instead. Why not join in the challenge? Or go to Cee for more flowers!