marsh marigolds

today's little gem, a very vivid fleshy member of the buttercup family, used by farmers to protect their cattle from witches and fairies, and also called kingcup. These are big specimens. Leaves are heart shaped and grow from the base.

marsh marigolds

this morning I found a patch of beautiful marsh down by the Tamar; here I am smelling (of) marsh marigolds. Towards the top left is a patch of wood anenomes. Very pretty.

woods

oh what a tangled wood we see when first we practice to perceive (with apologies)... purple toothwort. If you enlarge this photo you will see little patches of purple on the stump in the foreground and in the bottom left corner.

more toothwort

this parasitic plant has no leaves. It is very striking this year against the leaf litter. And goes very undisturbed which is probably why it is here every year. It is not a native plant, and may have come into the Endsleigh area on one of the many foreign species planted out in the woods over the last 250 years.

Cornish daffodils

Endsleigh is the big house in the background, Harriet and Max providing contrast, the Tamar running quietly at the bottom of the meadow. Cornish daffodils (real wild ones) in the woods. No daffodils in Devon. Come and see them in Cotehele. at http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/national-trust/cotehele.htm

toothwort

today's little gem, purple toothwort, growing on a tree stump (possibly hazel or ash), down by the Tamar, a little way below Endsleigh House.