Calendar December 2015: Cotoneaster

December: Cotoneaster

The Warms of the Red in the Dark Cold Winter

(Cotoneaster horizontalis*, 
Order: Rosales, Family: Rosaceae, Genus: Cotoneaster )

The dark wet month, December, has come.  The winter solstice this year is on the 22nd of December.  In our garden there are still quite a lot of evergreen plants, but the leaves of the deciduous trees almost fell almost now.  Hydrangea's flowers turns smoky grey green from vibrant pink.

Now the cotoneaster's leaves in our garden are turning red after the berries did.  Though, the many leaves remain green this December.  Only some leaves  at the end of the branches became red.  Probably the temperature in the autumn and December has been relatively higher than usual.  Our thermometer at the window has shown rarely under 10 Celsius so far.

It was after Christmas last winter when I saw these strikingly red leaves of cotoneaster not only in our garden, more in the other front gardens and parks.

We can see this plant in cultivated areas.  Cotoneaster is non native wild plant from China.  The glossy thick tiny rounded leaves are lined tightly on each branches and a bunch of branches look like a fan.  The cotoneaster in our garden has a few berries every year, but it has often many berries.

Today I saw our cotoneaster had no berry more, but also no berry on the pyracantha as well.  They were obviously eaton up by robin, blue tit, wren and maybe sparrow.

When the red berries disappear, it's the time to put the bird feeder in our garden so that those tiny birds are not starving in the cold winter.

*I don't know how to distinguish the difference between cotoneaster horizontalis and cotoneaster atropurpureus.  Both have tiny glossy leaves and tiny berries which turn red in the autumn.  The further searching on the RHS plant finder for cotoneaster, the more confused I am becoming, because there are so many species.

Calendar November 2015: Sycamore

November: Sycamore

The Memoir of Our Friendship

(Acer pseudoplatanus, Order: Sapindales, Family: Sapindaceae, Genus: Acer )

When walking on a footpath alongside meadows and a wetland in a frosty November morning recently, I stopped at a small wooden bridge.  Leaves after leaves were falling from a tall tree  (not a sycamore, though) in the tranquil windless late autumn sunny morning.  The sound of the leaves falling was so subtle.  How are they falling without wind? Maybe the frost from the previous night made the crucial push to detach the leaves from the branches. The subtle sound told me a farewell to the autumn.

As walking further, there were 3 or 4 or more big sycamore trees at a farm.  While the footpath was covered with yellow leaves, a man (a farmer?) was busying himself with sweeping the leaves in his garden ( or his woodland?).  It was a bit of contrast between them.  

The leaves of sycamore look similar to London plane's, but sycamore actually doesn't belong to Platanus family.  Its fruits with wings show it belongs to maple family.  Sycamore, alas, is actually not a native tree, but it has been naturalised in Britain.  Nowadays we can see them often in gardens, parks, or even in woodlands.

A big sycamore tree used to stand on our previous neighbour's ground at our fence.  Next to the tree, a big ash tree used to stand on our ground.  The two trees stood next to each other like a twin.  Alas, they were cut down as being too big and too close to the both houses.  I made a relief print as a memoir of the trees and our friendship with your neighbours who were always so friendly to us from the beginning when we moved in.  But sadly they moved out to live within our town but elsewhere.  Sycamore tree makes me a little bit sentimental.

Updated Portfolio!

The last craft market before Christmas was over last Sunday.  Now, I have to gear up for the Christmas preparation.  Alongside I am trying to update the portfolio (See above this window. There are salmon pink tool bars.)  I have put part of the new pieces which I created for the solo exhibition in November in Japan.

Updated parts are:
Screen Prints: New!
and
Paper-Cut Art: UPDATED!

Please look at the difference between the original paper-cut artwork and the screen print.  They give you quite different impression.

For expample;

Forthcoming Craft Fairs: November + December 2015

Added New Artwork

Part of the artwork, created for the latest solo exhibition is now added to the 'Screen Prints: New!'.

The last craft fair, at which I have a stall, will be held this coming Sunday at St Donat's Art Centre, Llantwit Major.

Crafts for Christmas

by St. Donat's Art Centre

Sunday 6th December

10:30am-4:30pm

(Entry £6 for a car, or £2 on foot)

at St Donat's Art Centre

Atlantic College, St.Donat's Castle, Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan, CF61 1WF

Snapped Up Market

by Printhaus

(snapped up market on Facebook)

Sunday 29th November

11am-(5pm)

at Printhaus

70A Llandaff Road, Canton, Cardiff, CF11 9NL

(The premises are in the courtyard, just go through the narrow tunnel-like entrance. Parking space is limited, so please park near by Llandaff Road.)

Christmas Crafts and Creations

by Penarth And District Lesotho Trust

Saturday 28th November

10am-1pm

(Free Entry)

at Stanwell Road Baptist Church Hall

Victoria Road, Penarth

(On the left, next to the Paget Rooms)

Gift: Penarth Contemporary Craft Market

by Penarth Pier Pavilion

 Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd November

11am-6pm

(Free Entry)

at Penarth Pier Pavilion

The Esplanade, Penarth, CF64 3EU

The Exhibition in Japan was over now

My first solo exhibition in Japan was over now.  I've been back home in the UK and am thinking how wonderful it was.  I would like to say thank you all who involved to the exhibition, no matter how involved, in the UK and in Japan and wherever!

The exhibition was held at moi (the website is written in Japanese) in Kakogawa (Hyogo prefecture, near by Himeji, western part of the main island) 4th - 8th November 2015.

I brought original paper-cut artwork, screen prints and relief prints for the exhibition.

It was a great nice surprise that a lot more people came to see my exhibition everyday than expected.

 I ordered tailor-made solid oak frames to rinkoukan (written in Japanese) for my 16 screen print pieces I created especially for this exhibition. Rinkoukan is a furniture workshop run by a skilled furniture artisan, Mr Kanki, in Wakayama prefecture.  We had communicated via email with a lot of images and drafts, and in the end when I saw the frame after having arrived in Japan, I was really glad what amazing work he had done!

Displaying the original paper-cut artwork wasn't originally my idea but the owner of gallery moi.  I'd like to thank her for giving me her invaluable suggestion!  I added coloured opaque paraffin paper to the black paper artwork, which gave a very different impression to the screen print one.

For example, 

My First Solo Exhibition in Japan

I have been preparing the artwork for my solo exhibition in November in Japan.  There will be a series of my 4 seasons' wildlife art work of original paper-cut artwork, screen prints and relief prints.

'when you walk in woods and meadows'

As imagined, my great interest is wildlife around here.

Alongside the original paper-cut artwork, I have collaborated with the Printhaus, the screen print art studio in Cardiff to create screen prints from the artwork since it's difficult to make screen prints by myself with my wrists.  They did to make stencils from my original work, to create colours what I wanted, to make screens, to print etc....  The work was tremendously demanding, but they were always patient to listen to me and hardworking.  

I cannot say thank them enough.  I am overjoyed with the work they have completed!

I am very thrilled about this special event.

Next week I'll fly to Japan.  The exhibition will be held between 4th and 8th of November.  I am going to update on this blog and Face Book as well.

When I get back home, I will take part in various craft fairs around south Wales(details updated soon).

The new calendar for 2016 of wild plants (relief prints) will be on sale as well.

'Garden Foraging' Back to the Nature: From a talk event of the Book Festival

'Garden Foraging', it was very tempting to me.  It was the title of today's talk event of the Book Festival of our town.

The guest speakers were the author of 'The Garden Forager', Adele Nozedar, and a local artist and illustrator, Diana Mead.

I have one of Nozedar's book, 'The Hedgerow Handbook', which is one of my favourite plant books, from which I have often cited in this blog.  I was looking forward to this event.

Yes, as expected, I (I suppose, everyone at the event as well) enjoyed it very much.

They brought an apple and a few branches of Himalayan honeysuckle from Diana Mead's garden.  Nozedar said that about 90% of garden plants on the market (of the UK) were edible, even though it says 'not edible' (because of the marketing of traders).

Thinking about plants generally, it's difficult to distinguish between wild an cultivated ones.  cultivated plants nowadays were, of course, cultivated from wild species.  And vice versa, like Himalayan balsam and Japanese knotweed, both of which are edible and tasteful, they are categorised under unpleasant name, 'invasive plants'.

One of the audience questioned about the bitter taste of many of wild plants.  Nozedar said the bitterness of those wild plants have been eliminated through cultivation to suite our (consumers') favour, but the component of the bitter taste has good effect on immune system and so on.  We tend to prefer perfectly proportional spotless but less tasted fruits and vegetables from supermarkets.

She also told (in response to another question) that children in the two generation before (which means, grandparents as children) consumes much less sugar than children today.

I recall articles, many years ago, somewhere in a Japanese newspaper, that someone tried making dishes what the Tea Ceremony master or guru in the 16th century, Sen no Rikyu in those days.  Unsurprisingly the tasters felt the dishes tasteless, which was meant to be little salted and spiced.  

Our sense of taste (generally including other senses, actually) has been gradually weakened over the centuries.  

Why not use those plants as healthy diet source and get our ancient sense back?

This is Himalayan honeysuckle in our garden.  To be honest, I didn't know its name.  Nozedar said it tasted like bitter sweet chocolate.  After back home, I picked one of the berries and tasted it.  Indeed!  (An audience asked her if the leaves were also edible, and she immediately put a leave in her mouth!  So, recommended young leaves rather than old autumnal leaves.)

And, fuchsia in our garden as well.  The flower are also edible despite the vivid neon colour.

In the end, I bought another foraging book of Nozedar, 'The Garden Forager'.

Calendar October 2015: Wayfaring Tree

October: Wayfaring Tree

Colouring the Late Autumn

(Viburnum lantana, Order: Dipsacales, Family: Adoxaceae, Genus: Viburnum )

At the far end of our garden, I saw the red berries some years ago. They were of wayfaring tree.  I can't remember it used to be there when we moved here.  Presumably a bird brought a berry and simply dropped (you know what I mean).  

Usually they are seen commonly at the edge of meadows, in hedges where the sunlight reaches well.  The leaves are distinctively creasy, undersides with dense white silky hairs.  In the autumn they turn red or red brown, firstly surface where the chilly air touches directly. The colourful berries are beautiful, but we'd better leave them for birds and animals as they are not entirely edible.

The creamy white flowers, which are tiny and make a flowerhead, bloom in the mid summer. The berries turn at first red, then purple and eventually into dark purple (almost black).

Nearby our house there is a big grassland.  There grow grasses, meadow flowers and shrubs like wayfaring.  You cannot imagine it used to be a quarry, then be a land fill site.   I can spot quite a few former landfill sites, which were transformed into parks with wild plants. 

Wayfaring tree is one of the wild plants, which thrives well in the site.  The berry clusters of  red, purple and black are striking at the boarder of the grassland in the autumn, where leaves of grasses and bushes turn yellow and brown.

Having wondered where the name, wayfaring tree, came from, I have searched the reason but without result.  Wayfaring is 'traveling on foot', while seafaring is 'traveling by sea'.  Is there any connection between the meaning and the plant?

Maybe wayfarers, travellers in the olden days, used the berries (or leaves) for food or remedy.  I have tried to find out, but couldn't find.  (If I find something about the origin of the name, I'll update this blog.)

In October, the temperature drops sometimes under 10 C°.  The leaves turn yellow, brown and red, and fallen on the ground.  Ripen berries are eaten by birds and small mammal animals to prepare for the winter.  Walking in the morning, I feel the air holding more moisture, which makes chilly, but refreshing.  We still enjoy the warm sunshine in October, and yet prepare for the coming wet cold months....

Calendar September 2015: Bramble

September: Bramble (Blackberry)

Tempting behind the prickly leaves

(Rubus fruticosus, Order: Rosales, Family: Rosaceae, Genus: Rubus )

Bramble is, according to Adele Nozendar (The Hedgerow Handbook, Square Peg, 2012), originated from the Germanic word 'brom', which means 'thorny shrub'.  I know that blackberries are called 'Brombeeren' in German.  Bramble is also called blackberry, which is named after the glossy deep purple black berry.

The berries start ripening at the beginning August, at first light green, then gradually red, and dark wine red, eventually turn deep purple black.  We can enjoy the decent harvest still in September, possibly in October.  I think blackberries are one of the most common wild food for free here in the south Wales.  

The fruit is actually not 'berry', a cluster of drupelets.  A single drupe, stone fruit, has a seed in the middle of the fruit such as peach.  An individual blackberry's drupelet has also a tiny but stubborn seed.  The seeds are resistant about the acid in stomach.  It means that seeds survive through the animal's digestion and are transported to other places.  Bramble is also regarded as ancient species.  'The pips were found in the stomach contents of a Neolithic man'!  (The Woodland Trust website)  These strong species survived through many years, even thousands years.

That's why we can find the brambles everywhere, in meadows, hedgerows, wastelands, woodlands.  They are so hardy, or rather invasive that they come into your gardens.  While the prickle tangled stems and leaves keep away from us, human and many animals, they give some other animals benefit to be protected.  Small birds like wren and robin and mammals can nest within the bush, keep away from their predators. (The RSPB website)  

After the sunny warm days, we stroll into the meadows with a big container, where the berries grows undisturbed.  The ripe blackberries on the sunny spot are really sweet.  You have to be careful with the hooked prickles on the stems.  Once you are trapped in the tangled stems, you must struggle to get out!  A proper clothes (a sturdy long sleeved shirt, a pair of sturdy long trousers and a pair of sturdy outdoor shoes with thick soles) are highly recommended.  Even with armed outfit, we usually get scratches on our hands.  Alas, we cannot wear gloves as we cannot pick the soft berries only with bear fingers..

We collect the ripe fruits as far as we can, but most of the best juicy soft sweet berries on the top of the prickly piles, from which prickles prevent mammals including human, are left for birds.  They can enjoy the feast until the end of September, or even later.

My husband makes blackberry jam every year.  He sieve the berries to remove the seeds to make smooth texture.  Last year, I have tried to make blackberry cordial, inspired by making elder berry cordial.  But I didn't know that blackberries have high level of pectin, like apples, which caused 'clotted blackberry cordial'.  Luckily my children liked the cordial and all the bottle were consumed.  (However, I won't make one any more!)

Blackberry and apple crumble is on our autumnal pudding list.  They both get on well with crumble.  I usually use muesli and chopped nuts such as almond or hazel nuts for crumble dough, which makes crunchy texture.  It's our favourite autumnal desert, which can be made quickly.

September begins with, often, rain.  Today, September the 1st, was between sunny and cloudy, and there was a sudden shower in the afternoon.  But fingers crossed, hoping a dry warm autumn so that we can enjoy the sweet aromatic blackberries.

Calendar August 2015: Red Clover

August: Red Clover

Scented pretty flower in the midsummer meadows

(Trifolium pratense, Order: Fabales, Family: Fabaceae, Genus: Trifolium )

In the middle of August the meadows in the midsummer has still colourful wild flowers but there is a subtle autumnal feeling.  The colour is turning a little bit hazy as the grasses are turning yellow. The seeds of the carrot family such as hemlock, wild carrot, wild parsnip etc. are becoming brown or yellow.

Among the other wild plants, red clover is flowering here and there in the meadows to attract its benefactor like bees, butterflies and other insects throughout the summer.

Red clover has been so common as well as white clover that almost everyone knows this pretty flower, but we (at least I) know very little about it.

The flowerhead is consisted with a lot of slightly purplish pink flowers although it is called 'red' clover.  Individual flower is a small version of pea's one.

The leaves are trifoliate and oval, and each leaf has a white crescent-shaped mark.  White clover has also trifoliate leaves with white crescent-shaped mark, but the leaves are round.

Red clover, like other pea family, is nitrogen fixing and used as green manure crop for enriching the soil  in the cultivated lands.  

These features are well-known, but I didn't know their flowers and leaves are both edible. (Cultivated sweet pea's flower is poisonous.)  Though, they are the favourite forage for the cattle.  Why not human can eat them?

According to 'The Hedgerow Handbook' (by Adele Nozendar, Square Peg, 2012), flower heads can be used in salads.  It sounds normal, like using other edible flowers for salads.  But I cannot imagine how it looks and tastes when the flower (divided into individual flower with a little sugar and salt) is put into a cooked rice.  I took a flowerhead of red clover in one warm evening in a meadow, and suck its nectar.  The subtle sweet taste and aroma came into my mouth.  So, the flower rice probably has a delicate pleasant fragrance.  It gets on with grilled meat, I imagine.

Leaves can be cooked with  garlic and onion.  Pea shoots has become popular.  I imagine clover leaves might taste like the pea shoots.

Also there are recipes in the book, 'Red Clover Lemonade' and 'Redo Clover Almond Biscuits'.  Both recipes use generous amount of flowers.  But you can easily collect them for free from the meadows.  (I attach the two recipes at the end of this blog.)

An interesting finding of this section in this book is about a two-leafed clover.  Well, it doesn't have to be red clover, but also white clover.  Adele Nozendar cited from an old tradition. that a two-leafed clover is connected with marriage when an unmarried girl find a two-leafed red clover.  Take it home and after that when she see a man, she will marry the man.  How romantic it would be!

(Added on 23. 8.2015)

I found a poet of the red clover fairy on Cecily Mary Barker's The Complete Book of The Flower Fairies (Edition 2002, Warne).

The Song of The Red Clover Fairy

The Fairy:

O, what a great big bee

Has come to find my honey.

He's come to find my honey.

O, what a great big bee!

The Bee:

O, what a great big Clover!

I'll search it well, all over,

And gather all its honey.

O, what a great big Clover!

A red curly haired little girl with hazy pink dress and scarf on a leaf is looking curiously at a bumblebee collecting the nectar (Barker used 'honey', but technically nectar is right.  Honey is the processed product of nectar by honeybees) of red clover.  

***** Recipes from Adele Nozendar's 'The Hedgerow Handbook' *****

Red Clover Lemonade:

Makes approx. 1 litre

750g fresh red clover, plus extra to garnish

500ml water

500g honey (or sugar)

Juice of 2 lemons

1. Simmer the clover blossoms in the water, in a covered pan, for to 10 minutes. No need to boil.  Then add the honey or sugar and stir until it's dissolved.

2. Cover and let the mixture steep and cool for several hours or overnight.  Steeping makes the infusion strong, increasing the potency of the calcium and other nutrients in the clover.

3.  Add the lemon juice and chill in the fridge.

4. Strain, then serve poured into tall glasses over ice, garnished with a chunk of lemon and a couple of clover flowers.

Red Clover Almond Biscuits

Makes Approx. 25 biscuits

380g wholemeal flour

3tsp baking powder

100g almonds

100g butter

2 eggs

120ml buttermilk

1/4tsp almond extract

287g red clover flowers, plucked out of the flower head

1. Preheat oven to 230 C/gas mark 8.

2. Whizz the flour, baking powder and almonds in a food processor until everything is finely chopped.

3. Add the butter and pulse until you have a crumbly texture.

4.  Add the eggs, buttermilk, almond extract and the red clover flowers.

5. Whizz once more until you have a lump of dough.

6. Roll out the dough (no too thin) on a lightly floured work surface.

7. Cut into 5cm squares. Transfer to an ungreased baking tray and bake for 10-15minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.

Calender July 2015: Long-headed Poppy

July: Long-headed Poppy

Angel in Ancient Woods

(Papaver dubium, Order: Ranunculales, Family: Papaveraceae, Genus: Papaver )

When we moved to this house, I bought a packet of seed of 'wild meadow flowers'.  As a lazy naturalist, I chose having a wild flowers' garden.  Well, our garden isn't so big, though.  One day in July, a scarlet tissue-paper-like flower appeared in the sea (or a pond) of the green.

The poppy family has variety of species.  The victorian naturalist and illustrator, Cicely Mary Barker drew the poppy fairy in her Flower Fairies of the Summer (first published in 1925).  The flower she drew was common poppy, which had gorgeous red and black appearance.   The fairy has long black hair and wears read and black dress.   

 There are also rough poppy and prickly poppy.  Why all three have gorgeous appearance is, entirely of my view, because they have bigger black blotch base of petals.  The black in the middle of the scarlet petals makes a vivid impact.

Long-headed poppy, contrast to these three,  has no black blotch, and has light green stigma, which gives a mild natural impression.  The four petals are scarlet but slightly pinkish.

The name of 'long-headed' comes from its narrow, elongated capsule.  The capsule is hairless whereas the capsules of other ones are hairy.

In the book of The Bumper Book of Nature (by Stephen Moss, 2009, Square Peg) I found  a list, in which flowers of poppy should be first seen in each year around the 20th of July of the St Margaret Day.  (The author, Stephen Moss cited this from another book, Weather Lore by Richard Inwards, 1893.)  Maybe the saints' days are connected with the vegetation in Europe.

Carpets of the summer flowers are seen in our town at the marina throughout the summer.  There is an open public space where people can go for a walk and various flowers bloom throughout the summer.  I remember there used to be a just abandoned field with a lot of tubes, which I couldn't know what for.

I searched on the internet and found a newsletter by the Welsh Government through our county council website.  Now I know what those tubes on the field were.

The field used to be a landfill site.  The land has been owned by the Welsh Government since 2000.  They completed the project to improve gas and leachate management.  The tube I saw there were to be used to replace the wells and pipelines, which now underneath the wildflower meadows.  After completion of this work the wildflower meadows were created.

The meadows include a lot of popular common wildflowers, of course, poppies, cornflower, daisy, marigold, redshank etc.  They are beautiful, alas, cultivated, not entirely wild.

Calendar June 2015: Yellow Archangel

June: Yellow Archangel

Angel in Ancient Woods

(Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Order: Lamiales, Family: Lamiaceae, Genus: Lamium )

June is a transitional month, from the early summer to the summer.  When the carpets of bluebells and white wild garlic flowers faded toward the end of May, woodlands are settled in the colour of green.  Around woodlands, hedgerows, and meadows are gradually filled with colourful flowers.

Yellow archangel grows at edges of ancient woodlands or shady hedgerows.  It's more often seen than herb-paris, but one of precious wild plants.

I find them at some road banks near by woods and at the edge of my favourite woodland, just alongside dog's mercury, red campion, ground ivy and some other wild plants.  The yellow flower brightens up the shady place.  

The leaves, crinkled with tiny hair on the surface, have similarity to lamiaceae family such as basil, mint, marjoram etc.  They are also look like stinging dead nettle, but are not stinging.  Two leaves attach to the stems like a pair of wing, one above the other.  If you look the plant from above, each two-paired leaves descends by 90 degree to the bottom, which look like a lot of propels.  The flowers sit in between.

The flower buds are like tiny cream-yellow balls.  The flower looks like a cream-yellow armchair with a roof.  The flower clusters are somehow like a tower of armchairs.  Flower fairies would rest their wings on the chairs....

Yellow Archangel....., I have looked my Edith Holden's books (See my blog in March), The Nature Notes of An Edwardian Lady and The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady, whether she mentioned this plant in her book.  Almost overlooked her small water-colour illustration with the name, 'Yellow Weasel's Snout'.  (The author, Edith Holden was a naturalist and illustrator in the early 20th century.)

It is resemble to yellow rattle in her books.  But yellow rattle grows mainly in sunny meadows, while yellow archangel prefers shady places like at the fringe of woodland or in shady hedgerows.

Weasel'a snout, a plant, is also in Lamiales Order as yellow archangel is.  The plant has pink flowers, but the shape is resemble.  I try to imagine a snout of a weasel of animal, though, it looks hardly like this pretty flower!

In olden days this plant would be commonly called yellow weasel snout.  But I like call this plant ' Yellow Archangel' The name just suits the appearance, like an angel with a pair of green wings, don't you think?    If you look at the upper half, an angel with a yellow clown to be fly away at any moment, and if looking at the upper half, an angel with an arched green collar is resting its green wing on its back.

Confusing species is 'variegated yellow archangel', of which flowers are almost same as of yellow archangel, but it has white variegated leaves.  It is popular as garden plant and easily spreads in the countryside.  A wild plant conservation organisation, Plantlife, warns that this subspecies is an offence to the other wild plants.  (Though, I cannot find this name in the UK's Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.)  Hopefully these cultivated species won't invade this ancient plant.

Yellow Archangel is thought to be an indicator for ancient woods.  It must have existed for many many years in the woodland, possibly since a tiny woodland formed.  Interestingly I find yellow archangel as well as herb-paris (see my blog in May) in the ancient wood, while none of them is seen in a park near by my house, which used to be a limestone quarries until 1970 and was developed after the closure.

As I research on woodlands, I realise that a woodland hasn't been created in a instance and also it's not simply an cluster of trees.  A woodland is a ever growing living biodiversity's cluster unless it is crucially damaged, possibly by human.