Out walking to-day. The hedges and grass verges are full of wild flowers, the Dog Rose is a favourite of mine. We have a lot of them growing beside the 'bottom road', where I walk most days. I appreciate them as they bud, flower and then produce their hips in Autumn.
Dog-rose is the most common and widespread of all our wild roses.
"An old riddle, 'The Five Brethren of the Rose', gives an effective way of identifying roses of the canina group. It is a folk-riddle that has been passed on orally since medieval times. This is a version transmitted through a line of distinguished gardeners, from Canon Ellacombe to Edward Bowles to William T. Stearn:
On a summer's day, in sultry weather,
Five brethren were born together.
Two had beards and two had none
And the other had but half a one."
(The 'brethren' are the five sepals of the dog-rose, two of which are whiskered on both sides, two quite smooth and the fifth whiskered on one side only.) (Mabey, Richard - "Flora Britannica")
Yes, to-day twas a summer's day, in sultry weather. A good opportunity to revisit The Chimneys. Now it's raining and the land is glad of the water.
We watched An Inconvenient Truth last evening and I guess you can't watch that without a renewed appreciation of the natural world. As well as have ones consciousness raised, absolutely
