Orchids, swans, terns and buttercups

Northern Marsh Orchid See how the orchids are thriving!!

A swan too close - boy, can they hiss!! It wasn't us - a dog (not ours) got too close to the cygnets
The weather has been warm and sunny so a couple of days ago we had a short stroll around Watergate Park which was built on a former colliery spoil heap. You may remember that last year around this time I spotted a beautiful flower which turned out to be a Northern Marsh Orchid! Well, I am pleased to report that the orchids have multiplied and we spotted them in various locations on the side of the lake. Also, we discovered that the swans had 4 cygnets and two Terns were nesting on the lake - very difficult to photograph and after looking through 350 pictures tonight, I have selected the one below. Taken with Andreas Cannon 400D Digital SLR Camera

One of a pair of Terns (not sure which type of Tern) which swooped back and forth over the lake - very graceful, but very very quick and not easy to photograph.

Yellow iris around the pond and below a group of Buttercups

......... on a cold and frosty morning!

We've enjoyed some beautifully sunny days with clear blue skies, but the overnight frosts have been very thick - but very pretty. These are photographs taken during the past week are of plants in my garden, early morning before the sun melted the frost.

Frost so thick, it almost looks like snow

Isn't he cute? This little squirrel was photographed in the rose garden in Saltwell Park, Gateshead - it helped that other visitors were encouraging their grandchildren to scatter peanuts to attract the family of squirrels.

Autumn walk

Andrea and I had a lovely walk in Thornley Woods this afternoon armed with a camera each and took some great pictures. We only saw one squirrel, but we made too much noise walking over the leaves and scared him off.

I love walking through crisp golden leaves, it's almost as good as snow

Andrea snapped me taking photos behind this tree

We were fine going down the various sets of rough steps, to the stream at the bottom, but when it came to climbing back up through the woods it was hard going. (Especially when a family at the top of the last flight of steps shouted for us to come up, so we felt we had to keep going even though my legs felt like jelly!!!

Elderberries

Holly Berries

The last of the Blackberries


The bark of this tree was amazing!

We both had rosy cheeks when we'd finished our walk

Andrea

A walk by the sea

The weather faired up this afternoon, so we went to the St Mary's Lighthouse at Whitley Bay. You can only cross the causeway when the tide is out, and it is always interesting to see what has been left behind in the rock pools - take a look at this jellyfish - Andrea almost put her foot on one - yuk! On the way to the coast, we called in to Jesmond Dene for a walk around and saw goats, sheep, donkey, pig, hens and a rather large rat in the kiddies Pets Corner

Evening stroll in Saltwell Park

No rain today so after work and tea, we had a nice stroll in Saltwell Park, Gateshead this evening. There were swans walking on the path around the lake, sygnets, baby geese, loads of bees getting the last of the nectar from the perennial plants and a really nice fern growing in a nook half way up the trunk of a tree! We were quite surprised to see Dock leaves and quite a few weeds growing in the flower beds in the park, but maybe they are classed as 'wild life areas'?

Andrea took the photos tonight.

The mystery pink flower is an Orchid!

Remember the pink flower we found in Watergate Park. We had a great day out on Sunday visiting 17 gardens on the Hexhamshire Garden Trail in aid of St Helens Church at Whitley Chapel (more in next post). During a visit to Greenways garden, which was stunning, we spotted what we thought was the identical flower! John (a proper gardener) said it was an Orchid (Orchis Maderiaensis) and we thought we'd spotted a rarity on our doorstep! When we got home I emailed our local council with our photograph etc, and this is the reply we got: The photo is of a Northern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) which grows around the Gateshead area in undisturbed damp grasslands but also colonises recently reclaimed sites where there is a previous history of occurence. They normally flower early to mid June and this year flowered even earlier due to the warm spring we had. They are not planted by the Council but are genuinely native plants. Many thanks to Michelle at Gateshead Council for this information and others who suggested various names for the plant. I have personally never seen the orchid growing anywhere else in the wild, especially in Gateshead but I'll be 'orchid spotting' on every walk from now on, and we'll keep an eye on the two patches we found in Watergate Park to see if they colonise!

Sunday stroll in Watergate Park

My grass is all cut, edges all neat, no weeds (that I can see), seedlings all planted. This afternoon we walked in Watergate Park, which is man made on the site of a very large spoil heap from an old coal mine. It's really maturing and we were lucky to get close to the swans with their two cygnets. I don't know what the cerise coloured plant is, one thick central stalk covered in flowers - any ideas? We only saw this twice within the whole area. Back to work tomorrow, so will revert to walking around the village instead of exploring further afield

Thornley Woods

On Thursday we had a nice walk in Thornley Woods and here are some pictures - I wonder how many dandelions will grow from this single seed-head???

Visit to Shibdon Pond

Today we walked around Shibdon Pond Nature Reserve. Here are some pictures of the flowers and vegetation

Sunday afternoon walk

On Sunday afternoon we walked in Derwent Park. Andrea took some pictures of the wild flowers we found including dandelion, dog daisy, vetch, cowslips, 'old mans baccy' (that's what we called it when I was a girl) and the most beautiful purple clover. There was a tiny wild forget-me-not and some pink flowers for which I don't have a name yet. The swans were nowhere to be seen, neither was the heron, but we had a lovely walk even though it was very chilly