Monday 16 June 2014

Weather for Chickens - Permutations 2 (rewritten)

Perhaps they’re not ‘weeds’ but wildflowers. After all, a weed is simply a flower growing in the wrong place. "It is not the business of the botanist to eradicate weeds. It’s enough for him if he can tell just how fast they grow.” (C. Northcote Parkinson) The average gardener, on the other hand, is obsessed with them; under no circumstances will he tolerate them in his tidy beds. The gardener knows only too well how fast they grow and spread.

Some weeds (okay, back to calling them weeds) prefer poor, free-draining soil. No wonder that the small patch of land left over by the new bungalows for disabled and elderly people has this wonderful display of Orange Hawkweed, also called fox-and-cubs. It’s easy to see why the nestling clusters of tawny-orange flowers and buds are so-called but one of the hawkweed’s other names,  Grim-the-Collier, is harder to explain.

Some years ago Beloved saw these pretty flowers and thought he’d love some in the garden. He went round collecting seed and spread them on the grass at home. We were extremely lucky that the seed didn’t take except for a few straggly specimen which soon disappeared with mowing. Unless you want to use toxic weedkiller the only other remedy is salting the lawn.


Contrary to the English preference for a manicured lawn I am not at all bothered about our grass. As it is it consists mainly of moss and clover which keep it nice and green looking. But applying generous quantities of salt would have been a bit too much even for me. 

The next swathe of weeds along the footpath is this Lesser Trefoil. It’s a tiny plant, another grass weed, and probably the true Irish shamrock, - the seamrog, or 'cloverlet’.  It’s only really noticeable because where it grows - usually stoney ground or on the edge of tarmac - there are fairly large patches.


A bit further along this very short path running from the High Street to Trinity, a wonderful enclave of ancient almshouses, via the sheltered housing, is this luminous strip of geraniums. Somebody probably had a few too many plants in their garden - the old people’s bungalow gardens are very small - and they simply planted them on the verge between hedge and footpath. Nobody minds that sort of thing in Valley’s End. Geraniums can be a weed, they multiply before you can get the secateurs out.


 Millie was panting; all my stopping and starting obviously did not please her, so I promised her a dip in the river. But before we got to the castle ground and from there to the river we had to pass the children’s playground. No children were in evidence but chicken escapees from the surrounding gardens were using the ramps for a bit of harmless fun, clucking away peacefully and contentedly.





PS: I had to rewrite this whole post; there is no way lost blogposts can be retrieved and Blogger is no help. Best thing is to draft all posts as a document first, then copy and paste.

All of you who responded to my cry for help, thank you very much.





30 comments:

  1. Weeds can be great little bloomers. Butterflies and bees love them and some are quite pretty. Some can become a real pain though.

    I write my blog posts using Windows Live Writer. My dear husband told me about that program and I'm so glad he did as it has made blogging so much more enjoyable and easier.

    Have a great week ~ FlowerLady

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  2. Friko, I am delighted to see this re-typed version of Permutations 2. It's a grand post. Not all weeds are created equally appealing. I love your photos. Hoping Millie was glad to get home and have a rest, but also glad that her walk with you has now resulted in our reading pleasure.

    On the theme of Blogger irregularities, and lack of cures, I would like to say that my own home page problems accessing any but the most recent post by someone I follow...well it continues. Grammar and punctuation evade me just now.

    Perhaps by tomorrow whatever is ailing my page will have mended itself. Meanwhile, it's been grand to have this catch up with you.

    Love to you and yours. xo

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  3. Friko, FYI, after I clicked Publish button to send the above comment, I got one of those yellow-knashing-teeth iconed error messages.

    Good news is that somehow blogger must have allowed my message to fly over the ether to you. Cheers. xo

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    1. I think Blogger has been sending out lots of error messages in odd places, recently. It coincides, if you've not noticed, with the annoying, daily changing, football-bouncing letters on Google's home page! I think their tec team cause havoc whenever they 'play' with the basics!

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  4. i love me some weed flowers...ha....they are resilient...and pretty...
    and how dare they call them weeds...


    sorry you had to redo the post...that stinks...

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  5. You have such lovely weeds over there. I wonder that you bother with grass at all. Here, the most notorious lawn weed is dandelion. I do my part. I eat all I can. The flowers and leaves are edible. The roots, dried and ground, make a good substitute for coffee. Actually, I do not have a lawn. I ally with gill and clover against all grasses.

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  6. You DO have a higher class of weeds. We just have dandelions. Beloved's favorites are frequent at our up-north cottage. I like them too, always have -- but after your words, glad I never brought any home to transplant!

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  7. Glad you recreated this Summery and very pleasant post!


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= <3

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  8. I wouldn't mind those blue geraniums blooming in my garden. Very high class weeds, indeed. I don't mind the moss and clover in our lawn, but the husband detests it and is always looking for something that will amend the situation - lime, raking, whatever. It never works. I think he should just relax.

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  9. Oh no, so sorry Friko - you've already rewritten the post! It was hours later that I received your email. But lo and behold when I went to double check, the title of your post is there but not the post itself! Now how peculiar is that!
    Blogger does indeed have a lot to answer for at times!

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  10. The "weeds" look beautiful enough to my non-expert eyes. And don't those birds seem to be having the kind of life I wish for all members of their species to have?

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  11. My father told me that the difference between weeds and flowers was that one grew well, and the other grew where you wanted it. Simplistic - but with some truth.
    Off topic. I have just finished Gone Girl. Excellent, but very, very nasty. Thank you. I think.

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  12. Hello,

    Well, one person's weed is someone else's flower! We know of many people who regard Dandelions with sheer joy whereas, for us, they were pesky, nasty yellow jobs that had to be dug out, root and all, if they dared to show their heads.

    However, we have been known to grow certain 'weeds' for their attractive foliage. In these cases, rather like the Queen in Alice in Wonderland, it was a case of "off with their heads" before the garden was overrun with them!

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  13. geweldig wat ligt het er mooi bij ja de kippen hebben het daar heel goed.

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  14. Weeds with flowers - they are all good in my field - the dogs, kids love to run through them and I have received many a bouquet from the field (smile). I noticed that people round abouts here are almost frantic about having a GREEN, flowerless lawn.....BORING.....I keep my small lawn mowed and have a large field of mixed flowers which to me is nothing less than stunning....also looks nice on canvas or photo paper. I do however, weed out occasionally to keep some from taking over and ruining all the lovely colours. Friko, I write my posts and also keep a copy in a file on my computer, so if this happens to me, I am prepared. I have heard of many losing their posts, and I keep a backup of all I post. Have a wonderful day and very interesting post you have written.

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  15. Wildflowers are the best, because they occur naturally and their beauty is not manufactured. "a weed is simply a flower growing in the wrong place" - what a great quote Friko!

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  16. Well, I have to say (about weeds) that I once really liked the look of buttercups, but no more! They are the bane of my garden, and I am vigilant about taking them out and they reappear almost immediately. I love those wildflowers you showed, though. And those pretty chickens! Sorry you lost your post, but I'm glad you recreated it for your admirers to enjoy. :-)

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  17. Nice photos, Friko, and I am in complete sympathy with your acceptance of a lawn that had "weeds," the very term for which seems quite arbitrary. If my yard is green, natural, and clean, I am content. I fail to see the aesthetic appeal of those absolutely perfect putting greens that surround some homes. We are designed to cooperate with nature, not totally dominate it.

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  18. One year we bought seeds for "Italian rustic arugula" from a reputable seed company. The arugula was delicious, but within a couple of years, we were struggling to keep it from going rampant in the flower beds.(This was on Long Island, where things do more easily grow.) Twenty years later, we still didn't have it under control! I remember we got a book called something like "My Weeds," clearly some poor sod trying to make the best of it. From that book we learned that another rampant weed in our garden that we "affectionately" called bean weed (I no longer recall its proper name) had seeds that were viable for up to 40 years. Like you, though, I am happy to see many blossoming weeds in what one can only loosely call our lawn.

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  19. Once upon a time, I became intrigued with Virgia wild flowers. I collected them pressed them and mounted them on herbarium sheets. After I began to garden seriously, I learned how to root them out as soon as they appeared. These days, my garden has almost returned to the weed patch it was. Perhaps I should relearn the love do misplaced flowers.

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  20. What lovely flowers in these shots. Having a wild garden is so much better for the bees and butterflies.

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  21. I'm glad you persevered with this post. I really enjoyed it and your photos are super. Given the tendency to stamp out weeds in gardens and arable field, the ones that survive and help nourish the bees are to be cherished.

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  22. I am a lover of wildflowers, myself. Was a field wanderer from the age of five when we moved to the edge of the prairie and sand dunes into a brand new Minneapolis suburb. I'd be a sucker for any of those delightful plants. ;)

    Sorry you had blogger troubles. Sounds like a lot of people have had the past few days. I'm glad you hung in there and posted this gem. :)

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  23. Dear Friko, this ambling brings with it "weeds" that are beautiful but perhaps invasive. But then I think some "flowers" can be invasive also. I tend to think of weeds as flowers that neighbors might not like. In saying that I'm thinking of the fine crop of dandelions I had this year in the front and back yard. I was aware that my neighbors yards are pristine--no sunny flower heads there. And so the young man who mows for me cropped off all the heads of those "Dandy Lions." Lawns have never interested me much. Flowers do.

    PS. I always write my posts as a Word document and then copy and paste it into Blogger. Why? Because like you, I've lost postings! Peace.

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  24. My lawn is mostly wild violets, clover and moss. I like it that way.

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  25. I would not call any of those weeds. I think the orange hawkweed is wonderful. I wouldn't mind having it in the grass. I leave the yellow dandelions too.

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  26. Gosh, Friko! Such gorgeous blooms, all of them. Read both the posts now and what can I say - I'm somewhere there, under those plump laburnum blooms and meandering through the orange hawkweeds. I have a special thing for wildflowers and unkempt laws. Thank you for sharing this joy.

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  27. Hi Friko - well done on retyping .. I know Blogger itself organisationally does not help .. it's got its own life somewhere over the ocean.

    Troublesome weeds can be a right pain ... but those geraniums are a delight ... cheers Hilary

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  28. The whole area covered in brilliant colour is stunning to my vision. Weeds or not I love the hues and lush greens beside bright reds, yellows and blues

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  29. Very nice garden. The flowers are so beautiful.
    Things to do in Chicago

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