April Calendar 2016: Lords and Ladies

April: Lords and Ladies

Elegant Shiny Green

Arum maculatum
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Genus: Arum

habitat: shady places
distribution: throughout British Isles
except the northern Scotland

This March was chilly after the mild but wet quite stormy winter.  April has started with the cloudy chilly day, but hopefully the warm spring will catch up soon.  Buds and sprouts have been awaiting the bright warm days.  Birds are busy with making new nests, couples of butterflies are flying in the air, bumble bees have appeared from their winter shelters to collect nectar from early spring flowers.

Lords and Ladies (other names: arum maculatum, cuckoo-pint or Jack-in-the-Pulpit) appears quite early.  The glossy soft bright green young leaves come from the ground even in January in sheltered from the harsh weather, beneath bushes, at the foot of hedges, in woods etc.  The leaves look like spinach, though, the strong acidic taste causes irritating mouth and stomach upset; so, better not eaten. (Poison Garden Website, RHS: Arum Maculatum)

You can find much more delicious edible wild plants in the spring such as wild garlic, nettle, violet etc.

Like lesser celandine, lords and ladies is very sturdy, rather invasive.  Our garden in the shade is getting occupied more and more by them now among the early dog violet (which is also very sturdy).

The mature leaves are arrow-shaped. Two leaves are spread outward and the pale yellow-green spathe (the colour of the spathe in my print is green because of the printing method) comes out in between, in which a club-shaped brown purple spadix is loosely wrapped.  The shape of this plant is distinctive among the other wild plants.  The poem of the flower fairies (by Cicely Mary Barker) explains what it's like.  While many spring flowers have colourful bright colours, yellow, pink, white etc., lords and ladies isn't much more colourful, but the appearance is gorgeous.

Here is again a poem of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring (Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002).

The Song of THE LORDS AND LADIES FAIRY

Here's the song of Lords-and-Ladies

(in the damp and shade he grows):

I have neither bells nor petals,

like the foxglove or the rose,

Through the length and breadth of England,

many flowers you may see---

Petals, bells, and cups in plenty---

but there's no one else like me.

In the hot-house dwells my kinsman,

Arum-lily, white and fine;

I am not so tall and stately,

but the quaintest hood is mine;

And my glossy leaves are handsome;

I've a spike to make you stare;

And my berries are a glory in September.

(BUT BEWARE!)

March 2016 Calendar: Lesser Celandine

March: Lesser Celandine

glossy yellow petals

Ranunculus ficaria
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Ranunculaceae
Genus: Ranunculus

habitat: hedgerows, open woodlands or harf shady place, damp soil
distribution: throughout the British Isles

March.  The air is still chilly but the sun shines brighter and longer day by day.

The spring comes quite early here in the south east Wales.  To begin with the pretty white snowdrops, we can enjoy various yellow spring flowers.  We enjoy the early spring's yellow splash of of hamamelis, aconite, forsythia, daffodil, crocus, primrose and lesser celandine.  The wild plant of February last year was primrose.  While the flower is creamy yellow, lesser celandine's is bright lemon yellow.

Lesser Celandine is of the buttercup family, but its glossy bright flowers appear at the first in the family in February (even at  the end of January).While common butter cup has long stems, lesser celandine has shorter stems.  The heart-shaped leaves lay usually on or toward the ground. 

The plant is hardy and spreads everywhere, from gardens to open woodlands, banks of streams, hedgerows etc. They grow from root tubers and spread mainly with tubercles (Celandine/RHS).  This causes the ground is rapidly covered with them. A small patch of our front garden used to have green grass, but the lesser celandine took over only in a couple of years.  Many colonies are seen around here and there.  Once they flower, the glossy green carpet turns bright yellow.

Here is a short poem of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies of the Spring (Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower-Fairies, Warne, 2002).

The Song of the Celandine Fairy

Before the hawthorn leaves unfold,

Or buttercups put forth their gold,

By every sunny footpath shine

The stars of Lesser Celandine.

February 2016 Calendar: Daisy

February: Daisy

Tiny Pretty but Stubborn

Bellis perennis
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Bellis

habitat: lawns, short grasslands, meadows
distribution: throughout the British isles

Daisy, the name is so common that most of people know the pretty white flower.  They grow mainly in lawns, short grasslands and meadows.  It's very hardy and tend to make colonies.  Our lawn is occupied more and more by daisy, and the grass is receding...

Though the view of the flowering in a grassland is beautiful.

They start blooming already in February here in the south east Wales.  (Another white spring flower, snowdrop, shows its beautiful naive flower in January.  Many spring flowers are getting to bloom earlier than before, maybe partly because of the climate change?)

You would probably make a daisy chain as a child (or even nowadays?) at least once.  The tiny pretty white flowers spread everywhere and tempting to pick.  I think we deserve to picke them up as it's not thought to be an endangered spices.  Though, I'd like to just watch young tender flowers this month.

Cicely Mary Barker (1895-1973) described daisy flower as baby.  The daisy fairy drawn by her is a toddler girl, which suits the image of daisy.  But, contrast to the appearance, daisy is very strong and stubborn.

The Song of the Daisy Fairy

Come to me and play with me

I'm the babies' flower;

Make a necklace gay with me,

Spend the whole long day with me,

Till the sunset hour.

I must say Good-night, you know,

Till tomorrow's playtime;

Close my petals tight, you know,

Shut the red and white, you know,

Sleeping till the daytime.

(from Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker, The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies, Warne, 2002)

January 2016 Calendar: Bracken

January: Bracken

White Grey Beauty

Pteridium aquilinium
Order: Dennstaedtiales
Family: Dennstaedtiaceae
Genus: Pteridium

habitat: open areas
distribution: throughout British Isles

After the festive Christmas, the new year came into my life just like the previous year.  

January is usually wet and damp followed by December, but this winter has been especially much more rain.  Lets hope less rain as the sun light is getting slightly longer and brighter day by day.

On a cloudy rather chilly afternoon in January last year, we went for a walk to our favourite woodland.

A bunch of bracken created a beautifully misty coloured sight at the fringe of a woodland.  The chilly air made the shiny green leaves gradually discoloured, misty white grey with a tough of yellow-ochre.  These white grey leaves were contrast to the bright green grass. (Here in south Wales, grass keeps green throughout the year.)

It was simply beautiful.  Just like very delicate shells, the dried-up last-year's green leaves were hanging down from the brown stems.  The each one of the mini Christmas-tree-like small leaves were stretched out left and right, up and down. 

Bracken is in the class of Pteridopsida.  Many of the class grow in shady places, but bracken grows in the sunny open places, like around woodlands, at hedgerows, on grasslands, or in heathlands.

In the spring, usually late April, the light olive green fat bracken sprouts appear from the ground.  They look like asparagus sprouts here and there.  And they are edible as well.  Pick the thick sprout 15-30cm from the head.  When the leaves start spreading, leave them not to eat because they are already hard and stringy.

They have to be carefully processed before eating as they are toxic if eaten raw.  Usually I use a Japanese method to detox; place the sprouts in a big pot with a lid, and add bicarbonate soda, then pour the boiling water to cover the sprout thoroughly, leave them overnight.  Next day the water is changed a couple of times until the colour becomes clear from red brown.  The spouts can be eaten so with favourite sauce like hollandaise sause, or cooked like asparagus.  But don't eat them too much for the next year's growth and for your stomach!

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;