LIGHTS AND BELLS, MISTS AND FLOWERS

This is a mixed post to match a mixed season.

The month began grey and cold. We'd missed out on March winds - but having grown up with the idea that 'rain' is almost a synonym for England and Wales it never struck me that April might be without showers, let alone that the blazing summer weather of June should be relocated to spring.

This is the lighthouse at The Bill (the tip of land at the end of the 'Island' of Portland) as it was in cold and hazy weather at the beginning of April.
The lighthouse in the picture was built at the beginning of the twentieth century
but its history goes much further back. You can read about it
here.
This picture also shows how strip farming (elsewhere more associated with the middle ages) is still practised.

So, here we are in the third week of April, smothered in suncream and wearing shorts (well, not me personally - at least, not the shorts). Hawthorn bushes are only just coming into flower (the blackthorn being mostly over) - and it's quite disconcerting. This isn't how it's 'meant to be'. The season seems all 'wrong'.

There's a common saying

'Ne're cast a clout till May is out'

and, at this time of year, it seems to be discussed almost as much as the weather and probably more than who hears a cuckoo first (which is another tradition). Is the saying referring to May the month or May the blossom?  ('May' is another word for Hawthorn.)

You'd have thought we would have decided by now! It's a bit like the commercialisation of Christmas - an issue that is never settled and which gets re-chewed each year.

May Blossom - the flowers of hawthorn trees and bushes.
(Sometimes it is deep pink.)

The 'clouts' are the cloths we wear as clothes - which, in the 'old days' were much harder to take off and on. Some people would be sewn into them for the winter.

And those 'old days' lasted until not very long ago.Take a look at this page of the Ambleside Aural History Project.

This is the Higher Lighthouse - Marie Stopes (famous for promoting birth control) lived here in the 1920s. One of the buildings in this little group can be rented to stay in for a holiday.

My mother (who was born in 1920 and grew up in London) told me newspapers were sometimes stuffed  between layers of winter clothing to provide extra warmth.

Nowadays, of course, most of us are able to fling clothes off and on again with each passing cloud!

* * *

Even when the seasons flow according to plan, this part of South Dorset has its own range of surprisingly different climates. Portland Bill, exposed to cold winds and salt spray, is a harsh environment. A few miles to the west, there are Sub-tropical Gardens at Abbotsbury. The spring flowers in this post are located somewhere in-between!

The lighthouse pictures were taken on April 5th. 

The flowers yesterday (April 22nd).

The Lower Lighthouse, like the Upper Lighthouse, has its roots in the eighteenth century. It is now a bird observatory where a track is kept of birds returning from their winter migration.  There is a bookshop, field courses and day events too. (It's run by the RSPB.)

Here you get a glimpse of why lighthouses were built here!

Close up of the
Black Backed Gulls
on the stack.

Throughout the centuries, Portland has been a tough place to live. Even now, those prepared to go onto its seas have to be skilled and brave and know the waters well. Boats like the one in the photo below have to be lowered by cranes.

The obelisk in the background warns that there is a low shelf of rock extending thirty metres into the sea.

As you can see from this photo, plants in the immediate, rough and rocky, area above the water are not bluebells! Here is another highly specialised context to bear in mind!

So, swinging between the beginning and end of the month, switching seasons in the way the weather is itself switching back and forth, flitting between the sheltered areas with dips and bushes - and the exposed land jutting south . . . we go from the harsh to the flowery and end with . . . this . . . there are lots of them . . .

Toffee Apple, Rob and Michael Peverett have identified
this plant as Green Alkanet - thanks folks!

I don't like this plant (others do; I've even seen it in gardens) but, since this is a blog to document what's here not what I'd like to be here, . . . well, here it is!

FIRST OF THE 'ABOUT's - WEYMOUTH

In the last post on Loose and Leafy, I said I would sometimes give you an idea of what South Dorset is like; what people do here, what the shops and houses are like - as well as a better idea of the wider habitat of the plants. It's nice to have a context, I think.

It's really Barbee who, inadvertently, gave me the idea. I've been reading her blog almost from when it started and have seen her beautiful and interesting garden as it goes through its seasons, hearing of how she works and what her garden helpers do to keep it changing and in good order. Occasionally, she has mentioned neighbours but . . . I have begun to wonder what is over her garden wall.

Weymouth Horses live on roundabouts
- and race in circles.

Barbee lives in Kentucky. I know Kentucky is in the U.S.A. but I need a map to show me where. I have a vague idea there are horses in Kentucky but . . . well . . . that's it. I don't know whether there are mountains or forests or a sea line . . . I'd better look at that map! I don't know what its economy is like, its politics, anything.

Of course, those matters are beyond the normal scope of a gardening blog (which hers is) but, nevertheless,  . . . I find myself intrigued.

Therefore, as part of the 'context' for the plants here, I will, from time to time, show you more of what it is like to live this part of England - and I will begin with Weymouth because it is the biggest town in South Dorset. (And 'big', I assure you, is not very large at all!)

* * *

Most people who visit the area in which I take most of the photos for Loose and Leafy would be amazed that plants and trees are its centre of interest. Of those who swell the population of Weymouth from a population of 67,000 to 200,000 during the summer months, very few will be looking dor dandelions.

Dorset is predominantly rural with woods and hills and fields and farms and its coastline is one of the most dramatic in England - but Weymouth itself (the biggest town in the county apart from the conurbations and retirement areas on the Hampshire border to the East) is the kind of stereotype of an English seaside resort one might not expect still to exist - sea and sand and donkey rides and stripey huts on the beach where tourists and holiday makers can buy ice-cream and candyfloss; roundabouts for children and grown-ups alike and small-scale scary rides for the brave.

There are areas of poverty, of course, and, in winter especially (because holiday flats fall empty) people are  drawn here too when they are rootless or troubled, recently released from prison and wondering where to go or with lives wrecked by addiction.- but that is not its most obvious face from outside.

I find crowds difficult and avoid town when the Kite Festival or Carnival or Christmas 'Show Night' (newly named 'Sparkle') fill the streets almost to crammed-up-full point. None the less, Weymouth is an important part of South Dorset - its atmosphere, its reputation and contribution to the regional economy so here, as a 'starter post' is a glimpse of its harbour. (I'm letting you in gently!)

This is the view as you would see it if you were arriving from the English Channel. On the very left, the rowing boat is a ferry for crossing the harbour. (There's a bridge further along.) Straight ahead is the Lifeboat (with the orange top) and the big boat with masts is The Pelican - a training ship.

This is a working harbour. Fishing boats moor further along.

Weymouth has a small commercial port. You can also take a Condor Lines catermaran from here to Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands and to St Malo in France.

Although, as you can see by comparing its size with the terminal, this is a large boat, it is not the largest on this line.

These are the backs of some of the bed and breakfast hotels, facing out onto the harbour. People staying in them are immediately by the scenes in the photos so far but, in a couple of minutes, they can walk to restaurants and pubs beside the harbour and watch the town bridge go up and down so yachts with tall masts can make their way into the inner harbour (or 'marina'). (It lifts just like Tower Bridge in London - only this bridge is VERY much smaller!).

As an anti-social person, I try to avoid the harbour when it is like this; the beach too (which I will introduce in another post, some other time). I like it when cold has driven people away and left sandcastles to the birds

and while most people are watching boats and kites and carnivals and eating ice-creams, I prefer to look at dandelions on the way home.

(Don't worry, the next post will be back to normal - but I thought you might like a glimpse of the 'other side'.)

P.S. - When I went to collect the URL for Barbee's blog, I discovered that, by an extraordinary co-incidence, Barbee has posted about farming in her temperate zone!

WHAT'S NEW, WHAT'S OLD, WHAT'S YET TO COME - and, most of all - WHAT'S NOW!

Blackthorn flowers before

it comes into leaf.

I’ve been housekeeping the blog so it should load faster onto your screen.

Most links are now under tabs at the top of the page. I’ll soon be adding notes to explain in what ways the different sites might be of use or of interest - though many are clear in themselves.

The labels list is more concise. (Still under construction too - there must have been more than one post about Spring before this!)

The mass of Blackthorn flowers can

turn the hedgerows

solid white.

‘What I Read’ (wide-ranging and idiosyncratic) has been reduced to a short list of blogs with a similar focus to Loose and Leafy. Not that I’d be able to explain my thoughts well here - Lithops, Sri-Lankan Trees and creatures in the National Zoo in Washington DC have very little in common with the hedgerows of south-coast England. Parallels between Loose and Leafy and The Green Man and Rebecca in the Woods may be more obvious. Don’t be put off by the title of ‘Tree Care Tips’. You may not be about to go pruning but I think it will interest all who like trees. Do check on the ‘Related Blogs’ tab from time to time. I’ve lost track of some links. They will be added back in gradually and more added.

The fruits of Blackthorn
are called 'sloes' and are

used for making ‘sloe gin’

(and nothing else I can think

of because they are so tart).
(September 7th 2010.)

Yet to be included . . . an  ‘ABOUT’ tab. Whenever I visit a blog for the first time, I like to know a little about the author and where he or she lives. This ‘where’ thing is very important in a blog like this and I’ve neglected it. I introduce you to trees and plants, bushes and flowers; occasionally I offer glimpses of views; but there’s little real context; the area as a whole; what people do here; how they live. I plan to put this right, partly in posts; partly under a tab.

* * * *

September 11th 2010

I have noticed two varieties of sloes (Blackthorn fruits) ripening locally in late summer). The ‘ordinary’ kind with a ‘bloom’ on (above) - and shiny ones (on the right).

April 4th 2011

Hawthorn flowers are sometimes muddled with those of blackthorn because they too are white. However, they aren't out yet; they arrive later - AFTER their leaves. (Their flower buds, at present, are barely visible.)

The fruits of Hawthorn are called 'haws' and, unlike sloes, are red.

And finally, almost insignificantly - but part of the ‘now’ - at our feet, this . . .

Happy Spring!