Tuesday 20 April 2010

ABC Wednesday - Nature in the Neighbourhood


No matter where your neighbourhood whether city, town or village, nature is in bloom. Cherry trees are at their peak; the pink ones are my favourite. This was one of two in the garden of an old house in Borwick, near Carnforth, Lancashire. It is only a small hamlet of about 200 souls which lies by the side of  Borwick Hall (an Elizabethan manor house, now an outdoor education centre) but it has some lovely old houses which settle round the green in such a way that a person with a camera could click away for hours.

Nature on a bridge, one of John Rennie's smaller aqueducts, lined with daffodils and a scattering of celendine.


Nature in a churchyard, St John the Evangalist, always known as Woodland Church is part of the Living Churchyards project, the dead necropolis providing a haven for native flora and fauna. As part of this scheme thousands of churchyards have been surveyed and are nurtured by local communities and wildlife trusts in cities, towns and countryside. By the gate of Woodland Church are a list and photographs of the species found both a celebration, a guide and an education.
Baptismal Font, Woodland Church
And churches always bring nature inside. 

Some parts of nature like the early flowering camelias are adored by gardeners
but some like this ancient plant are not.  The Common Horsetail making an early appearance, on the banks of the River Keer.  Looking like an alien invader, nothing like the branching plant it will become, hiding in the middle of bushes until it has become tall.
These plants are one of our oldest and have been here for millions of years and will probably still be here long after humankind have gone.

Gorse nestling in the corner of a field, in flower for most of the year, and so the saying "When gorse is in flower, kissings in season"

A coot nesting while seagulls nonchalantly perch. The park lake has this rather unsympathetic netting round the reeds, the Victorians who built the park would have come up with something much more artistic and elaborate, but it serves the purpose of protecting the nesting birds and flowering reeds from nautical types in rowing boats.

A large Number of other words beginning with the letter N are over at the ABC Wednesday meme.

14 comments:

Sylvia K said...

Such beautiful photos of such a lovely place and so many delightful N words!! Wonderful and interesting post for the day! Hope your week is going well!

Sylvia

photowannabe said...

Truly lovely. Naturally I am a nature lover too. Enjoyed all the pictures.

photowannabe said...

My word verifacation for my previous comment was PUDGE....not so fond of that choice!!! (:0)

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

What a fabulous post! A great line up of N's! I learned a lot too! And got a wonderful visit of your area. Thank you!

Jama said...

Over here, the blooms are sprouting all year long but of course not as nice as seen in your neighbourhood with the bursting of rainbow colored flowers.

jabblog said...

Nature in all her glorious guises - fabulous photographs as ever :-)

Mara said...

I love gorse. It's so cheerful whenever I see it.

mrsnesbitt said...

What a wonderful post to read on a day like today! I have just returned from a walk to the duckpond with Freida now inspired to post some pictures me thinks!

Thanks so much for contributing, always appreciated.
Denise (ABC Team)

Anonymous said...

Love the architecture of the first two photos, and the pink camelia is gorgeous. I've never seen Horsetail and I think you are right...it does look alien!

Amy said...

It's wonderful the old churchyards are being preserved. And I've never seen horsetail like yours! I liked the gorse quote; isn't it always "kissing season?" A very interesting well thought out post.

Thanks for visiting and commenting on my "n" post too!

Unknown said...

Nature is a force to be reckoned with, I love this time of year of new growth and rebirth!

http://www.gardenersreach.com/post/N-is-for-Northern-Cardinal.aspx

Shady Gardener said...

When my siblings and I were very small, our farm had a form of the Common Horsetail growing along a drive. We used to pick it, take apart the pieces and reconstruct them to make necklaces. :-) Thanks for the memories.

Roger Owen Green said...

NOT only do you have a NEST of NICE pictures but a NIFTY NARRATIVE to go with them!


ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Jay said...

Aaaah .. I just posted a long comment and when I tried to click into the word verification, the page jumped and I hit a flag and lost the lot!! *Bangs head*

To put it simply, I praised the venture for making churchyards into nature reserves and agreed about the horsetail. LOL!