St George's Day breakout

It's that time of year again. The Venterdon pond gang make a break for freedom, and review nesting places where no one can see them (except for the Orchard House mob who are watching every move). Spring is certainly springing.

pink purslane 2

Pink purslane is now naturalised to dark and shady places in the South West (? which must mean Cambourne). It is a native of North America and is closely related to Spring Beauty aka Indian lettuce, because it was used in salads and as a vegetable, or winter purslane and native Americans prized its bulbs as a food. PP is very common around here.

fields of silver

all of a sudden fields around here are being covered in acres of polythene. This is not natural. What happens to the polythene? And if it breaks down what does it break down to? Who has done research on the long term side effects? The only silver to come out of this will be that taken by agribusiness.

ramsons

the striking stellar flower of wild garlic (aka ramsons). Normally ramsons are slightly ahead of bluebells but this year the relatively cold weather of the last few weeks seems to have held the ramsons and a lot of other wild flowers back, and they are all going to flower together in May. Watch this space.

mob rule

two buzzards are being bullied by one agressive rook. You can almost hear the buzzard in the bottom photo saying "oi! you let go of my wing"

sheep's sorrel

much smaller and more compact than common sorrel, sheep's sorrel grows on grassy and heathy places often on bare patches with acid soils. Sorrel is supposed to be derived from the old french word surele meaning sour; the leaves contain calcium oxalate which can be poisonous in excess. Of interest (to me) sorrel was used as a herbal remedy for kidney and bladder problems. Most kidney stones are made of calcium oxalate and one might think that eating sorrel might well have made them worse.