Flowers This Year In Cornwall

Okay, here we go with some flowers I have seen in Cornwall recently.

I'll admit I cheated with the photo above as they are flowers my wife received on her birthday.

The flowers in the next group of five photos were all growing happily - wild and free... those were the days!

Some quince. We used to have one of these in our garden. I can't quite remember what happened to it, though it did bear fruit. 

Heather seen near Cornwall's Eden Project.

Next proves that Cornwall has had some  pleasant blue sky days - contrasts well with the pink blossom.

Ah, and one of my favourite birds, the robin, always a welcome visitor.

Two more flowers which were growing wild, quite an explosion of forget-me-nots

Primroses: often seen wild but these are from our garden. The red coloured brick is from the cottage where my wife was born in northern Germany. On a visit to the area the cottage had been virtually destroyed to make way for a new main road - so we brought home a brick as a souvenir.

Next is Toby's bush in memory of our favourite ever dog, a wonderful border collie. His photo is at the end of the post.

A pink azalea in our front garden, hasn't been quite as bountiful with the flowers as usual.

Another photo of the same azalea.

Oh, and some roses my wife also received on her birthday - well that's what she told me! 

Thanks for visiting my blog - all good wishes.

My favourite photo of Toby

An Abundance of Wild Flowers at The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall

Today I follow on from my previous post, which was about a visit to The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Today we are looking at Heligan's West Lawn and Valentines meadows. As can be seen they are ablaze with a beautiful display of wild flowers.

The flowers seem to go on forever. In the distance - as can be seen in the photo above - the blue of the sea at Mevagissey contrasts with the yellow of the flowers.

The dominating flowers are corn marigolds, but there are other flowers as well.

I did manage to also find a few blue cornflowers, white corn chamomiles and a some lingering poppies 

As well as being attractive to look at wild flowers provide nourishment for bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies, moths and a whole host of important pollinators.

Walking Gover Valley, Cornwall: Wild Flowers and the Dreaded Japanese Knotweed

A dull rainy day but we wandered along the Gover Valley. 

The Gover Stream gurgled along happily as we walked and there were flowers, weeds and herbs for company. They all looked quite healthy because of the recent heavy rain.

We reached some, what I believe to be ovens, left over from the china clay industry which once thrived in Cornwall.

We decided to turn round here and retrace our steps, the stream was still making its merry way to the sea.

Ah, but now we came to some unwanted visitors: Japanese Knotweed! It's the plant to the right of the photo below. Yes, it looks innocent, and later will have nice pink flowers, but it isn't. 

To quote the UK Government web site: You could be fined up to £5,000 or be sent to prison for up to 2 years if you allow [Japanese Knotweed] contaminated soil or plant material from any waste you transfer to spread into the wild. 

Sadly there is a lot of this knotweed along Gover Valley. It's difficult to eliminate despite the area having been treated.

Moving on we returned home safely!

My wife has been making coronavirus masks. I think she's made over 50 and they have been distributed to relatives, friends and neighbours - whether they want one or not!

Seriously though, masks are now advisable when out and about in crowded places and are compulsory when travelling in buses and trains. Looks like she still has lots more material.

Thanks for the visit, stay healthy.