wild flowers on Braunton Burrows

Wild flowers abound on    

Braunton Burrows

about 5 miles from Woolacombe

unfortunately I haven't a clue what this is called (bet somebody out there can help)

as with this flower

I thought this was a thistle at a distance but close-up it is obviously

nowhere near a thistle!.....
(again if anyone can help) -

I think I need a book on wild flowers don't you.....

Wild Strawberries

I thought it was too early for wild strawberries but apparently not.  We have seen a lot of them on our local walks.  To start with we only noticed the flowers

and then all of a sudden the fruit appeared.  VERY small though

I took this photo so you can compare the size against my hand

(although, of course, it could be a normal sized strawberry with a giant hand!)

The bright red spot in the centre of the picture is a strawberry!  When they are hidden amongst leaves they are difficult to see but generally the bright red shows up, as we all know the eye goes straight to red.

This was something John Constable knew all too well as he would always put a spot of red 'somewhere' in his paintings

It's rather nice to see fruit growing in the wild and on a sunnier day I got a good close up

In this photo you can see the strawberries that have yet to ripen

I have done one or two sketches of them in my studio, some of which didn't turn out too well.  I'm not going to pretend that every sketch or painting works out well, I have as many 'for the bin' paintings as the next person -

These two are going in the bin

but this next one I quite liked

and this one

Oh...and we sampled a couple whilst on our walk....they tasted just like strawberries!

Honeysuckle

Having said about Buttercups in my previous post I thought I should give some space for Honeysuckle.  I really would love for you to be able to smell this flower, but until they invent Perfume-a-blog we will have to settle for some photographs

 You can smell it before you see it, gorgeous

Buttercups

Buttercups - what a nice sounding plant.  (One of my recent posts was about Hogweed - not so nice sounding)  

The buttercups are growing everywhere here at the moment so it was inevitable that I would end up doing a post about them.  I've taken a couple of photos - as if we need to remind ourselves what they look like - but they are so nice and sunny and I would say 'a happy flower' (or is that just me getting poetical again!)

It's a job to see some of these because of the bracken 

and in my doodlings I've sketched them

At the top of this sketch I've added:

'When I was young we would put a buttercup under a friends chin to 

see if it reflected the colour, if it did it meant they liked butter!'

I wonder if kids still play this game - or has it been lost somewhere along the line

Hogweed in the Hedgerows

 Note: with Blogger offline for several hours this particular post was lost. I have now replaced it and hope I can remember my original photos etc.  I apologise to Mary C. Nasser who had kindly left a comment on my original post.

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A few weeks ago I noticed that the hogweed was starting to grow again in the verges

and they are now in flower

you can see that not all the flowers have turned white yet

and here's a close up
(the fly heard I was out with my camera and decided to get in on the act!)

 and, of course, I couldn't resist a quick sketch

HEDGEROWS

IT IS REALLY lovely to see all the wild flowers popping up along the hedgerows.
Here in Woolacombe is no exception with what feel like old friends showing their faces again.

The delicate little Devon Violets make me smile.
They don't stand out particularly, not something your eye would go to immediately, but as you amble along their splash of blue/purple colour catches your attention.
On closer inspection they are really quite perfect.



I have taken the opportunity to sketch and paint some of them 'en plein air'.
People walking past often try to see what you're doing and I have become quite good at closing my sketchbook and walking on before they get to me! I must try to stop doing this,after all what does it matter if somebody wants to talk to me about my painting,I do enough of it in this blog.

ANOTHER plant out in flower at the moment is completely opposite to the delicate Violet and definately a prickly character - the Gorse. The colour is just amazing so bright.

It obviously does a very good job of attracting the bees with its bright colour shouting 'here I am'. This is a plant that you find cattle and horses love nibbling at and not surprising either. If you pick the flowers (I would suggest carefully) and crush them in your hand they smell of coconut. I know that some people make Gorse Flower Wine out of them, there are several recipes on the Internet and according to my sources it is very good too....not that I have tried to make any....as if I would drink wine anyway, the very idea!

I took this photo the other day of one such gorse enjoying it's sea view.