…and this isn’t the first time!
Persian Cornflower
There are several knapweeds (Centaurea spp.) that have been used as wild vegetables in the Mediterranean countries. I haven’t yet found and evidence of this beauty (Centaurea dealbata “Steenbergii”) having been used but it’s flowering in my garden at the moment!
I’m interested in seed of any of the following, all recorded as food plants (shoot, leaves and stems):
Centaurea aspera
Centaurea calcitrapa
Centaurea dumulosa
Centaurea hyalolepis (syn Centaurea pallescens)
Centaurea nicaeensis
Centaurea nigrescens
Centaurea solstitialis
Scruffy Siberian Nutcracker
There’s always something to distract me here. This morning it’s a Siberian Nutcracker (sibirsk nøttekråke) sitting atop a pine tree in my Hazel woodland (the reason it’s here), checking out the ripeness of the nuts and declaring ownership!
Alys’ Pool
Almost exactly 6 years ago (is it really that long ago?) I was delighted to have a visit from BBC gardening presenter and Guardian writer Alys Fowler. After we finished photographing the garden I took her on a tour to Vennafjellet, the closest mountain to home and we also stopped at Nævrahølet, a local swimming “hole” under a small waterfall! It was a glorious hot day in “paradise”. It’s now known as Alys’ Pool and a picture of her swimming here features in her book the Thrifty Forager!
6 years on I did the same trip with the group of Danes who have been learning about permaveggies in my garden! It was a much colder day, but two of us did venture into the water. It wasn’t as bad as feared! One thing I hadn’t noticed on Alys’ visit was that there were several plants of Mountain Queen (Saxifraga cotyledon) hanging in full flower around the waterfall!
See the video of Ostrich Fern Island below:
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Sunrise on 22nd July
Sunrise at 04:18 this morning, 22nd July! It’s now a month away from the solstice! The temperature was 18-19C. Yesterday, a few places recorded over 30C yesterday in this area!
Danish invasion of Vennafjellet
On Sunday of the Danish Malvik permaveggies course, we drove to near the top of the closest mountain from home to see the views and the rich flora: Vennafjellet (Faseknippen) and walked over to Baklifjellet
Please feel free to add names to plants and people!
See the whole album here: http://www.edimentals.com/pictures/index.php?/category/114
Moonrise and sunrise
A few pictures of moon and sunrise in Malvik last night :)
Swift attack
I heard a few swifts (tårnseiler) yesterday evening, so put on my swift attracting CD (I have a nest box on the house) and in no time they were dive-bombing the house and inspecting the box…maybe they will remember next year! My favourite birds!
Yuki-no-shita
Saxifraga stolonifera is a lover of dark, wet, rocky places in Japan, Korea and China. I saw it several places in Japan during my March / April visit and ate the leaves as tempura, the commonest way of using it in the kitchen. In Japan, it has the “lovely” name Yuki-no-shita, meaning “Under the snow” whilst in English this fairly popular rock garden plant is known as creeping or strawberry saxifrage. It has flowered for the first time in my garden and they are rather special! There are a number of leaf selections (currently 8 available in the RHS Plant Finder in the UK, as well as a large flowered form). A great rock garden edimental then!! Probably not hardy, I will try to overwinter in my cellar!
Black-flowered broad bean
In July 2011, I noticed that a beautiful black-flowered broad/fava bean had appeared amongst my Crimson-flowered broad beans (a UK heritage variety that I’ve grown for some years)!
In July 2016, another black-flowered bean appeared (the bottom picture below)
