Toadflax (above) always takes me back to the wild part of the childhood garden where I grew up. Damson trees where nightingales sang on hot summer nights; gorse bushes whose seedpods popped like musketry on hot summer days; lizards and slow-worms in the stony banks and yarrow and toadflax at the edge of the lawn.
It reminds me of the Observer's Book of Wild Flowers which I pestered my dad for - I was 6 years old. Half the illustrations were black and white and half coloured line drawings. I so LONGED to see the exotic-looking and dangerous-sounding Viper's Bugloss with its pink and blue flowers but it was to be 25 more years before I discovered it flowering on a Dorset cliff edge. I can still remember the thrill.
Below is Ivy-leaved Toadflax, which I first saw and identified whilst out walking the at then still unrestored railway between Swanage and Corfe Castle. We had set out from Corfe Castle and this was on a bridge at the Swanage end. Every time I see it, I am back on a sunny day in Dorset, the day my friend Gay and I met a stranger on the beach and, deep in excellent conversation, ended up walking 15 miles, and at one point scrambling along the top of a wall to avoid the Hogweed and getting in a lather climbing up the steepest of hills near Kimmeridge. I got home in Southampton at 1 a.m. , by bus, train and finally taxi . . .
8 comments:
Ahhhh ... Swanage, Corfe, Kimmeridge ... from the time of Hannah's little cooker until just a few years ago we always went to Lulworth for a holiday (we lived further away in those days) and those places were always part of the holiday experience. Now they're almost on our doorstep we rarely go. Such a shame.
So, nostalgia all round. Simon Dupree and the Big Sound did it for you - and the toadflax etc and Dorset names have done it for me!
Mmmmm, cheese on toast. I was wondering what to have this evening! ... Anyone reading this will wonder what on earth I'm talking about! Hee hee!
Lovely post! Toadflax ... this brought back vivid memories of going on nature walks with the Brownies - I won the Observer Book of Wild Flowers in a competition in the Brownies, and I still have it somewhere!! Thanks so much for giving me a trip down memory lane!
Willow x
That picture of Toadflax is lovely...I have never heard of such a plant but it is unusally lovely
Lovely pictures, BB, and I have to admit to not always commenting, but enjoying your posts nonetheless! I know you may find it hard to believe, but I don't always know the right thing to say!!!!
Kim x
That was such a beautiful post, and I so enjoyed reading it. Toadflax! Isn't that the best name?!
Nan - I think Toadflax is a wonderful name and it obviously comes from way back in the history and making of the English language.
It is, of course, the wild antirrhinum or snapdragon. It grows wild here in Wales, on hedge banks and in profusion along the strip of grass down the A40 dual carriageway west of Carmarthen - until the bloddy Council cut all the wild flowers town in the name of "tidying up".
I'm glad I brought back memories for VtoV and Willow. I still have my little book, and others besides. I think my favourite is Marjorey Blamey's The Illustrated Flora and Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica, although I still have a soft spot for my Keble-Martin which I bought when I first started work.
A Bite of Country Cupcakes - it is quite a common little plant in summer, so now you've heard of it, you may actually see it.
Kim - stuck for words? We weren't when we met up this summer!
Hi, thank you for the mention, but on turning to my Illustrated Flora by Geoffrey Grigson, what do I see!
"Never be seduced by toadflax, never allow it into the garden, it spreads incessantly"... apparently it got taken over to America and one of its name is "Impudent lawyer".nicer Wiltshire names include bread and butter, bacon and eggs and bunny rabbits....
"Impudent lawyer" - I like that. I must try it in my garden as I would really LOVE it to spread here! "Bunny rabbits" is a name I recall from my childhood, now you mention it . . .
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