May Visit to Herefordshire

 

The week before last after visiting Brueton Park LNR on the Tuesday with D, B and I went to the static caravan in Herefordshire just for three nights as the weather forecast didn't seem too good. As it turned out it was dry and sunny most of the time!

Since our April visits the Herefordshire Trees are now in leaf.

Herefordshire Oak

Octopus Tree

Constable Tree

The rose in a pot we bought last year has developed lots of new growth.

The bay tree is doing well.

Both brooms in one of the borders are flowering really well.

The apple tree has blossom. We had a really good crop of cooking apples last year from this tree.

D planted this sage which he had grown from seed and it is doing really well. This year it is flowering.

I planted just one Fox and Cubs and it is spreading!

Periwinkle and Hawthorn

The perennial wallflower I planted is growing really well.

Forget-me-Nots

Leaf Mining Bees are using the bee hotel again this year.

Thursday we went into Tenbury Wells to do a food shop at Tesco. The hedgerows and grass verges are looking wonderful full of hawthorn flowers, buttercups, dandelions, cow parsley and red campion. I do love the month of May.

We didn't go anywhere on the Friday as B wanted to garden. At tea time there were showers and a rainbow.

The field in front of the caravan is full of dandelions - so good for pollinating insects.

Hawthorn

Last month B and D put some mistletoe berries into one of the branches on the apple tree and we were thrilled to see one was sprouting although I think it can take several years before the mistletoe plant starts to appear.

I used the bat detector on the Friday evening and it was picking up calls although it was too dark to see the bats.  I am really pleased that there are still hedgehogs on the site as there were droppings on the grass.  I will start putting food out for them again when we next visit. I was worried last year that they had suffered from the dry weather as the food just wasn't getting eaten. House Martins are back on the site too.

We came home on the Saturday lunchtime. Hopefully, we will return soon and stay for longer.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

A Walk Through Wild Garlic Woodland

 

Last week D and I went for a walk at Brueton Park LNR where the woodland is always full of wild garlic at this time of year. It is a walk we both enjoy and we try and visit most years in May.  I was also hoping we could add some species to the 2026 Wild Plant Challenge!

Horse Chestnut was flowering in the car park.

Buttercups were flowering in the grassland - I think the species we saw is Creeping Buttercup.  There are four different types of buttercups - Creeping, Meadow, Bulbous and Goldilocks.

Cow Parsley was flowering - I think it is one of my favourite plants.

Daisies

The plant in the centre of the photo by the railings is Cleavers.

The first Wild Garlic flowers - last year the flowers were past their best when we visited but this year they were just perfect.

Comma butterfly - we also saw Speckled Wood and Holly Blue.

A grass to try and identify! We have been in Herefordshire so I haven't had chance yet but my grass/sedge/rush id skills are not very good!

Hawthorn in flower

I puzzled over the id of this tree for ages but I am pretty sure now it is a Whitebeam. If anyone thinks differently please let me know.

A Beautiful Demoiselle - we also saw Small Red Damselflies.

We finally reached the public footpath that enters the Wild Garlic Wood. The path follows the River Blythe which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Brueton Park can get very busy but we rarely see anyone along the walk by the Blythe.  This time we saw just one person at the beginning of the walk.

Wild Garlic just carpeted the ground. Wild Garlic (Allium ursinum) has several country/local names such as Ramsons, Buckrams, Broad-leaved Garlic, Bear Lee, Bear's Garlic, Gipsy's Onion and Stinking Jenny.

Purple Toothwort growing on its usual fallen tree trunk. It is a parasitic plant that has naturalised in Britain.

Another grass to try and identify!

Great Reedmace also sometimes called Bulrush.

Germander Speedwell - my grandfather used to call this Bird's Eye Speedwell.

Yellow Archangel an indicator of ancient woodland. This year there were far more plants than we usually see.

I think this is Ground Ivy.

I let David use the camera as we returned as his camera battery ran out as we arrived. Normally we do a longer walk across a meadow and then into another wood but to be honest I had hardly slept the night before and I was just too tired.

Horse Chestnut "candle".  The stamens on flowers of Horse Chestnut, like Hawthorn and Forget Me Not, change colour when they have been pollinated although, in the case of Chestnut, it can be a sign of age.

Wood Avens

Once back in the main park we walked back to the car park via the pool.

And I was glad we did because we added four more species of plant.

Cuckoo Flower or Lady's Smock

Marsh Marigold

Yellow Flag

Rowan

Tufted Duck

I was horrified to see a dog off a lead chase this poor Canada Goose :(

 

Edith Holden of "Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" fame often used to follow the River Blythe from Widney which is very close to where we normally walk to. So when I do this walk I often think of her wandering along the Blythe and the plants she recorded seeing.

We stopped off at the shop in Hampton in Arden to buy a drink. Here is the churchyard cat at St Mary and St Bartholomew!

We added another species on the way home - Oxeye Daisies on the grass verge.  Sadly, no photo.

So we added the following species to the "2026 Wild Plant Challenge"

• Creeping Buttercup
• Wild Garlic
• Foget-me-Not
• Cleavers
• Purple Toothwort
• Yellow Archangel
• Wood Avens
• Yellow Flag
• Marsh Marigold
• Cuckoo Flower/Lady's Smock
• Ground Ivy
• Whitebeam
• Rowan
• Ox-Eye Daisy

making the total we have seen so far  55 species.                  

I still have the two grasses to identify so we might be able to take it up to 57.

I have seen Cowslips when in Herefordshire but D wasn't with me and one species we need to try and add soon is Greater Stitchwort.

We need to add more tree species to the list too and, of course, orchids are starting to flower.

All photos taken by me or D with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).