The start of #30DaysWild coincided with the last day of half term, so the kids were home and were keen to visit Pyrtle Spring. We've been going there each month to see how things change throughout the year and to keep an eye out for a very special rose!
Pyrtle Spring is a special place where my great-great-grandparents used to meet before they were married. They took a cutting of a wild rose from the spring and planted it in their garden. Cuttings have been passed down through the family since then and 138 years later one made its way to my garden, where it is soon to flower. Read the full story
here.
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| Pyrtle Spring (or the Culverton Rose) |
The walk to the spring is along a footpath edged with Cow parsley, with the Chilterns in the distance and Culverton (where my great-great-grandparents lived) on the other side of the field.
The spring is hidden away behind a wall of leaves, so it's like walking through a magical doorway to get inside.
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| The entrance to Pyrtle Spring |
It's always exciting to find how much water will be in the spring and today .... it was completely dry.
Although you can always rely on the kids to find some mud!
The kids love the spring. They can walk around the banks, then explore down in the bottom, climbing on fallen trees and looking under logs and on nettles for bugs.
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| From the bottom of the spring, the banks seem a long way up |
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The logs have to be checked - there were ground beetles, millipedes, beetle
larvae, slugs, slug eggs, worms and spiders |
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| Climbing on the fallen trees |
There were a few nice creatures on the nettles growing in the bottom of the spring.
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| 14 Spot Ladybird |
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| Crane Fly |
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| Downlooker Snipe Fly |
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| Dagger Fly (maybe) |
We found a couple of rose bushes, but they didn't have any buds on, so we'll just have to wait until they flower to see if they're the same as my rose at home.
The birds were twittering around in the tree tops and we heard a woodpecker tapping away in one of the nearby trees. Then as we were leaving the swallows were swooping around us, chasing after insects (rubbish photos I'm afraid - they were a bit fast for me!) and the red kites were gliding over the fields.
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| You can see the insects around the swallow |
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| Red Kite |
Hi BMG is this part of the doing something wild for everyday of June thing? By the way, have you had problems with the BBC Wildlife discussion board where you tell everyone updates of your blog? Can't seem to post my updates on it. It's like I was kicked off. Other news, watch Unsprung Wednesday 10th, I'm going to be in the audience, hopefully.
ReplyDeleteWe are doing the 30DaysWild thing, but we would have gone to the spring anyway. There was a post on the board yesterday saying they were doing maintenance from 5pm until 10am this morning (I think) so you wouldn't be able to post anything then. Should be OK again later this morning.
ReplyDeleteWill look out for you on Unsprung! How exciting!!
Thanks that explains it lol I should have read that first lol I thought I was kicked off for doing something wrong. I will try later then. Thanks so much.
DeleteNo problem!
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