Meadows were Golden with Buttercups

According to Edith Holden's The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, June 1906 started with heavy thunderstorms. In 2016, I was fortunate to avoid delays to my journey to Birmingham as overnight storms in Sussex, where I live, had brought down trees and blocked roads.

Bright buttercups on a dull evening.

Edith's entry for June 2 said ...

"Many of the meadows are golden with Buttercups, and some of the fields are showing quite red, where the sorrel is coming into flower."

This week, I stayed at the Birmingham Airport Holiday Inn, just across the road from Solihull Council's Elmdon Nature Park. I discovered this park during last year's #30DaysWild and finding out that Edith Holden had walked in Elmdon Park inspired me to start this blog. I am rather nervous about using the iron bridge to cross the road but was pleasantly distracted by finding pretty tree blossoms at eye-level.

June 1st - A form of Whitebeam?

I passed the eccentric-looking old lodge and followed a path through some woodland, which gave way to a large grassed area.

June 1st - Woodland giving way to buttercups.

There were Buttercups everywhere - the flowers bobbing in the gusty wind. Above my head, swifts were gathering a late meal and the clouds were getting heavier and darker.

Only nature could get away with this colour combination.

A path divides the field into two, I followed it for a little way before finding the shocking pink flowers of Red Campion.

Cow Parsley, almost glowing in the gloom.

The lovely froth of Cow Parsley formed a lacy screen between me and the Buttercups. The sky was getting darker and I decided to turn back as there was little point in trying to take more photos.

Watercolour sketch.

Before leaving the buttercups, I perched on a handy seat and used watercolours to sketch the scene.  Surrounded by trees and wildflowers, and with rabbits grazing nearby, all the workday busyness and stress fell away. I felt that only the thunder of aeroplanes separated me from the artist and teacher who diligently made her nature notes over a hundred years ago.

In a later entry, Edith speaks of going out with a large party of friends. Although the passing dog walkers may have thought I was alone, my party of friends is much larger than Edith's. I am one of more than 25,000 people who have registered for the Wild Life Trusts' #30DaysWild. The plan is to do something wildlife related every day. We are keeping each other company by blogging, tweeting and sharing images and videos.  As soon as I had finished my sketch, I shared it using that 21st Century essential - the Smart Phone.

God's Acre, Hampton-in-Arden

In her 1906 diary, Edith mentions going on long walks and cycle rides through places like Hampton-In-Arden.  My snatched hours in Birmingham don't allow for long country walks but Hampton-in-Arden is only a few minutes down the railway line from Birmingham International.

Old house between Hampton-in-Arden station and village.

Although the village has modern estates on the outskirts and the road connecting it with the station is very busy, there are still clear echoes of the village that Edith walked through in 1906.  Along the road, I see several of the fine old houses and cottages that Edith must have seen as she travelled through.

Saint Mary and Saint Bartholomew Church.

The road curls round the Parish Church of Saint Mary and Saint Bartholomew. This 800-year church is surrounded by a fine example of "God's Acre", alive with wildflowers, bees and birds.

Trees on the edge of the church yard.

The church and graveyard are framed by pretty, flowering trees.



In Loving Memory.

Some of the older, Victorian, gravestones are a curious shape. This must be some local pattern - I have not seen anything like them elsewhere.  Two commemorate members of the Wooley family. Nearby the grass is neatly clipped but near the boundary a froth of cow parsley provides a fine buffet for bees and other pollinators. A red-tailed bumble bee buzzes near by feet as she forages for her last meal of the day.

Thomas Whitehouse's last bouquet.

A Cow Parsley plant adorns Thomas Whitehouse's grave, long after the family members who would have left flowers have joined him in the hereafter. 

Real and carved ivy.

On a nearby cross, real ivy mingles with the carved stone imitation.

Gravestones amongst Forget-me-nots and Cow Parsley

Making my way past an ancient yew, I found a quiet corner, where leaning gravestones were surrounded by cow parsley, forget-me-nots and fading bluebells.

Flowering trees on the way to the lych gate.

As I returned to the lych gate, a cheeky robin perches on the apex of Sarah and Abraham Taylor's headstone.

The White Lion.

After exploring God's Acre, I had an excellent meal at the White Lion.

Buttercups

After my meal, light was fading fast so I took a quick walk round the village, which is full of interest. My favourite spot was a buttercup meadow, with a serene view to the fields. As I took my photos, I could hear sheep and lambs in the distance. 

30 Days Wild

I am just about to start the Wildlife Trusts' 30 days wild, a challenge in which people do something wild every day for a month. Last year's 30 days wild motivated me to explore the area near where I work and stay in Birmingham and find new places to walk in such as Elmdon Park near one of the hotels I regularly stay in. Finding out that Edith Holden, who wrote Diary of an Edwardian Country lady in 1906, walked through Elmdon park 110 years before me inspired me to write this blog, in which I am aiming to find echoes of her observations in the 21st Century.

Bee orchid on a piece of waste ground.

30 Days Wild got me into the habit of being more opportunistic about engineering encounters with the wildlife that tucks itself into the spaces around us. My most memorable encounters were watching grey wagtails and house martins raise their families. They weren't in a nature reserve or even the countryside but in sight of Uckfield station and under the eves of a Birmingham hotel respectively. I even found some bee orchids on a piece of waste ground near our office.