Berkswell Churchyard and a local Rookery

D and I popped to the farm shop at Meriden last Sunday. It was a lovely day and we went along to the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Berkswell in search of Brimstones. There were no butterflies around but plenty of flowers.



St John's dates back back to the 12th century and was built on the site of an earlier Saxon church.

Primroses are starting to appear.

Lovely to see Lesser Celandine flowering.

The flowers are also known as "golden knobs" or "golden guineas".

"Before the hawthorn leaves unfold,
Or buttercups put forth their gold,
By every sunny footpath shine
The stars of Lesser Celandine"

Song of the Celandine Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker



We found lots of 18th to 20 century graffiti on one of the church walls.

An Ordnance Survey benchmark

Plants in Walls

Mosses and Lichens

The village stocks are around 200 years old. Unusually they have five holes and local stories suggest that they were designed to accommodate 3 regular local offenders one of whom had only one leg.

The ancient Bercul's Well which may have been used for baptism during Saxon times

Well House now a private residence but it was once the Rectory and home to Maud Watson (1864-1946) winner of the first Ladies' Lawn Tennis Championship at Wimbledon.

On the way home we stopped off in Meriden to watch the activities of birds at a rookery (there were at least 20 nests). (Photos taken by D with the Canon Bridge HS50)

Frogs, Moths, Garden Flowers and Recent Reading

Frogs have been active in the pond over the course of the last week or so and last Saturday we spotted our first frogspawn.

The next two were taken by D with the Canon Bridge camera.

Common Newts are also starting to move round - two were seen yesterday.

I've not seen any butterflies yet but Tree Bumble Bees are appearing and a few unidentified white-tailed species have whizzed past the kitchen window.



Daffodils are now in flower -

these pretty miniature ones are in the rockery behind the pond.

Primula Belarina Amethyst Ice will be in flower soon. I think there are at least three plants in this pot so will have to split them up later in the Spring.

Bergenia

Shoots on the Climbing Hydrangea

Primulas are dotted round the borders and

Wood Anemone leaves are just appearing above the ground.

I think Wild Primroses are my favourite flower and we have half a dozen large clumps.

I've had the moth trap out three times in the last week or so and trapped 3 species so far. (It is always a slow start here!)

Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana)

Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica) - two in the trap this morning


and this Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla)



I know I should have made more effort to get a photo of it out of it's pot - but the micro moths are very lively and after taking this photo it was off like a shot landing on a nearby window.

I finally managed to re-pot it and released it safely




Recent Reading


"Spirals in Time" is a superb book and highly recommended. The book is really well researched and immerses you in the wonderful world of molluscs (although I will be wary of Cone Snails when I am next on a beach!).

I've been wanting to read this book for ages and, although it took me a while to get into his memoirs, I enjoyed it. I will certainly see the Lake District in a totally different way when we next visit!

Good holiday reading

I get inspiration to try new authors from several of the blogs I read and I spotted this author on Rosie's Blog (see here)
I just adored this book (the first in the Doctor Ruth Galloway mystery series) and couldn't put it down!

Another author I spotted on Rosie's Blog was Ann Cleeves and having read all the Shetland Books I have moved onto the Vera Stanhope novels and have just finished the second. It is a really well crafted story and again one you could read at one sitting :)