#acre-scabious

[dansnaturepictures]

Twelve of my favourite photos I took in December 2024 and month summary

The photos are of; Sanderling at Hill Head, Great Crested Grebe and Common Gull at Lakeside Country Park, Red-green Carpet moth at Acres Down in the New Forest, gorse at Hill Head and winter heliotrope at Lakeside, mushroom possibly a blewit at Bolderwood in the New Forest, rainbow and sun lowering scenes at RSPB Lodmoor, the full cold moon and two pine dominated scenes in the sun at Acres Down and Bolderwood respectively.

My year ended with another fine month of wildlife watching and precious time outdoors I thoroughly enjoyed as I drank in the starkness, simplicity and slow pace of winter especially when surrounded by the trees in and near woodland. Bare branches dominated the landscape as prominent mistletoe hugged some of the trees, sunny days brought the ethereal mood of the season and darker days the drama. Sunset and sunrise, the moon and rainbows brought enchanting sky scenes. Other beautiful landscapes I enjoyed taking in this month included coast, lakes and heath. Yet in our ever-changing world whispers of next year’s spring were present as spectacular catkins appeared and opened on especially hazel and also alder and I saw the Great Crested Grebes at Lakeside Country Park appearing slightly amorous with one on a nest.

Other key birds of my month included splendid Merlin, Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck three of my birds of the year, mesmerising Marsh Harrier views, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Lapwing, Snipe, sensational views of Sanderlings at Hill Head a couple of times, Slavonian Grebe, Tufted Ducks at Lakeside, Common Gulls including seen really well at Lakeside, gorgeous and bright Grey Wagtail, a fair few Wrens and magical Kestrels and Kingfishers including some amazing times seeing them at Lakeside. Fittingly festive Robins which I got some great views of, Blackbird, Mistle Thrush, Bullfinch, Chaffinches, Goldfinch, Siskins, Linnet, Dunnock, Goldcrests, Ring-necked Parakeets, Green and Great Spotted Woodpecker, Buzzard, Ringed Plover, Turnstone, Oystercatcher, Curlews, Avocets, Mute Swan, Teal, Gadwall, Pintails, Wigeon, Shoveler, Greylag Geese and Brent Geese with Song Thrush heard were other highlights. I was thrilled to see my first ever Red-green Carpet moth a pretty one at Acres Down in the New Forest this month. Fallow Deer, New Forest Pony, Rabbit and Grey Squirrel gave me some nice mammal moments in December and I was stunned to see a Weasel at Lakeside on Christmas Eve. I saw a fair few Grey Silverfish and spiders at home.

It was an interesting botanical month with winter heliotrope a dominant and pretty flower species to see alongside vibrant and sweet-smelling gorse, violets, shepherd’s purse, annual mercury, dandelion and daisy a key group of things still/early flowering. Periwinkle was pretty to see in places with horseweed, hardy hogweed, ragwort, ivy, white deadnettle, red deadnettle, scabious, even wood avens and green alkanet, yarrow and a buttercup also observed. Like with the catkins some very early cow parsley at Lodmoor was an intriguing sight as was late wild Angelica at Radipole Lake on the same day. Rock samphire, common plantain, butcher’s broom, cleavers, ferns, bramble leaves, old man’s beard, seed heads of lady’s bedstraw, fleabane, dock and wild carrot and hazel leaves were other nice sights this month with snapdragons enjoyed at home. Rose hips, cotoneaster, late guelder rose berries and stinking iris berries brought some ruby fruity flair with snowberries shining this month too. I really enjoyed moss, lichen and seaweed this month. There was still a bit of fungi to see with enticing turkey tail and possible blewit, scurfy twiglet, rosy cronk and fairy ring marasmius standouts.

Happy New Year, wishing you all a great 2025. It felt like a good time to say that to help efficiency, reducing my screen time and other factors I’m going to be posting in a slightly different way across my social media from tomorrow. It will basically involve not necessarily posting the day’s photos everywhere on evenings I have a lot to go through, am pushed for time or have other commitments so it will likely mean I might not post every day here anymore. That might not really come to fruition until the brighter months but on any weeks I’m not posting a lot here I will try to do some posts in quieter times like weekend mornings with a few photos/experiences from recent days. It will be quite a fluid and evolving approach, as I say it might not look any different for several weeks or months and I may also be able to just post one or two photos from the day on here at times so there may be a bit of variety. Thanks for all your interactions in 2024.

[vicariousplacebo]

acre-scabious - Acker Witwenblume by gerkenmartin Source: http://bit.ly/2WBpHNI

[mike13mt]

acre-scabious - Acker Witwenblume by gerkenmartin

[theboh3mianraspb3rry]

It’s blatantly obvious how much I love gardens, especially Cottage Gardens. In my last blog post I discussed the importance of  ‘Urban Cottage Gardens’ and how great they are and so much so than Darren Lakin’s urban cottage garden in South Yorkshire. Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Darren’s garden. I’ve been a fan of his beautiful space for I’d say the bestpart of a year now. Since I found him on social media,  we have regular chats about gardening and brocante.  When I was poorly earlier this year Darren regularly asked how I was doing and sent me a lovely gift to help cheer me up, which was ever so thoughtful. I approached Darren for a visit with two minds, as much as I was dying to see the real garden behind his beautiful photgraphs, I also have utmost respect that gardens are a personal space. Luckily for me, I was welcomed so here we are.

When I pulled up at Darren’s I knew right away which home was his. Darren’s style is very country vintage chic and even his home oozes this beautiful charm. I was welcomed in and had a wee chat and a good brew before being invited into the garden.

Walking into the garden was truly magical, Darren is very humble often saying throughout the tour “It’s nothing special, but I like it”. The thing is though his garden is VERY special. It has charm and oodles of Darren’s passion just flowing about the place, every inch of it is tended to with care and love and this shines from it.

My first stop was at his homemade potting bench, which is made from salvaged materials Darren got from a scrap man and then using his craftsmanship skills put together and finished off with vintage décor looking like something featured in The English Garden magazine.  There were plant theatres and more décor adorned walls, with Darren’s homemade signs, a plumbed in Belfast sink and I’d only just stepped in and I was in garden heaven.

Next we wondered in to the main garden, where the famous tool shed sits adorned with all its surrounding blooms, it was just as amazing to see in real life and was everything I expected it to be, however the shed did seem a lot smaller than it does in the photographs, but that takes nothing away from gorgeous it is.

The plant combinations were amazing and in true cottage style. Darren were more than happy to disclose some were self seeders and not his doing, again his humble nature shining. In bloom were bright rudbeckias, dahlias, petunias, nepta, fushias, scabious, campanulas, echinops, geraniums, hydrangeas, agastache and loads more. Darren insisted his garden had gone over for the year and that at it’s best is probably late May-June ….. so I guess that’s just an excuse for another visit! However I still thought it was amazing.

As we were about to move round to the Potager, the heavens opened up and we had to take shelter in the greenhouse. In there were chilli’s and tomatoes galore and more of the vintage chic décor, stamping personality on his wonderful growing space.

After the rained died down we ventured in to his potager area, and it was abundant with crops but grown so beautifully they were decoration too. From kale, to lettuce everything was pristine, we harvested the most delicious smelling carrot that was perfect in size and form, if anything Darren is most definitely a gifted grower. His wife takes care of the meals and Darren does the growing from carrot cakes and bakes to yummy savoury dishes, seems it’s not just Darren who’s talented in this household.

Chatting with Darren was like chatting to an old mate I’d not seen in a few years. You just spill out on to each other all the great things you do and have been getting up to in the gardening world and it was fab. I don’t have many real life gardening friends, so when you talk to people with the same passion you get lost in conversation.

One of my main reasons for wanting to visit Darren and his garden was to highlight that real gardens the majority of us have are wonderfully inspiring and whilst they’re not acres worth they are still magnificent and should be celeberated because they’re real!

Thanks for stopping by!

You can find Darren and his garden on

Twitter and Instagram @darrenlakin2

Go give a follow and ask him any questions you’d like to know that I didn’t cover, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to chat to you or just tell him how amazing his garden is!

Brightest Blessings,

Bo xx

  My Visit To Darren’s Garden It's blatantly obvious how much I love gardens, especially Cottage Gardens. In my last blog post I discussed the importance of  …

[dansnaturepictures]

The sixth of my wildlife/photography highlights of 2022 posts: Ten key themes/moments of my flower year

Winter heliotrope at and around Lakeside

A pleasant discovery of my year for both the flowers and leaves. I took the first picture in this photoset of one.

Snake’s-head fritillaries at Lakeside

I was captivated once again by these exquisite spring flowers. I got the second picture in this photoset of one.

A good year of appreciating roses at various places like the ones in the third picture in this photoset in the garden.

Bee orchids at Lakeside

I was also taken in by this iconic species seen so close to home at Lakeside a few times again this year. I took the fourth picture in this photoset of one.

Run of seeing pyramidal orchids with fragrant orchid seen well at Martin Down too

I really enjoyed seeing and photographing the pyramidal orchids this year at different places and the fragrant orchid was a top moment of my year. I took the fifth picture in this photoset of the fragrant orchid.

Hedge woundwort, honeysuckle and ivy-leaved toadflax: Three I saw so much of and loved photographing this year that will live long in the memory for my flower year. I took the sixth picture in this photoset of a hedge woundwort at Bentley Wood in June.

Key summer species I enjoyed seeing at various locations; marjoram, wild basil, red bartsia, lady’s bedstraw, fleabane, agrimony, black mullein, pineappleweed, bird’s-foot trefoil, cuckoo-pint, hemp agrimony and great willowherb which I took the seventh picture in this photoset of at Lakeside in August.

Devil’s-bit scabious seen in the New Forest in September at Pig Bush, Ibsley Common and Shatterford, and sundew and bog asphodel at Acres Down in July

The scabious a flower I adore which it was so thrilling to see again a highlight of that time of year late summer/into autumn. I took the eighth picture in this photoset of some with heather at Pig Bush. The sundew is a plant I’d had an ambition to see for a while and it and the bog asphodel were some of my best flowers that I saw in 2022 for the very first time on that momentous day at the end of July.

The coastal flowers of Pembrokeshire in April which I loved seeing and photographing, such as red and sea campion and scurvygrass, squill and thrift which I got the ninth picture in this photoset of at Stackpole with species I associate with later in the year at home seen like eyebright, viper’s-bugloss, bird’s-foot trefoil and oxeye daisy.

A key part of my flower year.

Seeing comfrey

One I really enjoyed seeing this year especially as the summer went on into autumn and found delicious to see. I took the tenth picture in this photoset of some at Winnall Moors in September with Michaelmas daisies behind.

Some posts I did about some of these at the time:

https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/679095912813969408/18032022-snakes-head-fritillaries-jackdaw-red

https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/686887307684511744/12062022-martin-down-we-came-to-the-other-place

https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/682446792578744320/24th-april-2022-blog-2-of-2-marloes-sands-and-the