It always surprises me how hard some people find it to identify these widely-grown crops, even those who live in the countryside. They are all species of grass bred over thousands of years, and generically known as corn (as in cornfields). Just to add to the confusion, their…
Lois Wakeman Posts
…. one of those words you hardly ever need, but when you do, you do. It is the smell of wet earth after rain – not usually noteworthy in our damp Atlantic climate here in Devon, but after weeks of parching sun and wind, we now have a…
Spent a sunny evening here in this lovely informal garden with glorious views across the Marshwood Vale towards Jan’s Hill and Pilsdon. Full of interesting plants, I took my macro lens and decided to concentrate mostly on close-ups of flower forms. Next time, I need to take a…
Making the most of the hot dry weather, I did a clifftop walk along part of the South West Coast Path. We started in Bowleaze Cove, which is bordered by a strange mixture of expensive upmarket housing and budget tourist accommodation, plus a rather intriguing Spanish-style building of…
A baking hot summer’s day was perfect for spending time on the beach, dabbling in rock pools and enjoying the sea breeze. The Hartland peninsula on the north coast of Devon has a rocky foreshore with strongly folded strata of Carboniferous sandstone and shale, which run out to…
Tonight I visited one of the many Iron Age hillforts in the local area. The one atop Pilsdon Pen (one of the highest hills in Dorset at 277m, second only to Lewesdon) has a commanding view over the Marshwood Vale to the sea southwards, and far into Dorset,…
Sometimes, it’s the tiniest thing that makes an image work. I’ve banged on before about how a sunset sky often makes a boring image even though it was lovely to behold, and such a photo usually needs something pretty definite in the foreground to be compelling. We’ve had…
or …. happiness is a full washing line Shibori is a Japanese word for what many aging hippies will know more commonly as tie-dye – although it is often practised in a far more sophisticated and subtle way than the T-shirt with concentric circles you may remember from…
Genetic, not musical! I was struck by a particularly distinctive plant of red campion (Silene dioica) growing in the hedge (as seen above), which was a bit reminiscent of the flowers of ragged robin, another member of the Caryophyllaceae tribe. I noticed a long time ago that the…