I woke up this morning to disaster. Clear blue skies, the first that I have seen for weeks.
I checked the weather forecast and it told me the sun would only last till mid day.
I had promised to go to town with my landlord this morning to help him to purchase a CCTV system for the farm shop. (He doesn’t like technology)
But not until ten, there was time.
There are a few Spindle trees out on the common. This one was still in the shade but the light was good and it works for me.
We also have a small tree in the front garden and I thought that as I was doing Spindle that I should take a few shots of that one too.
Spindle berries are quite poisonous and would be great in poison pie (I am thinking of a colourful berry flan now). It causes liver and kidney damage and can lead to death.
Well that was my early morning rush about and I am very glad to have seen the sun for a few hours. As I am about to post this the sky has gone black again and it looks like rain but never mind…
At ten o’clock my landlord rung me and said that he couldn’t go to town today as he had some stone being delivered and so I took Fizz for a walk and the sun shone on us for another couple of hours. There might be another post today 🙂
A Tramp in the Woods 
Spindletastic. Stlll looking for the Ivy Bees but still not found any!
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Thanks Marc 🙂 With the recent bad weather bees are getting a bit thin on the ground around here. The trees have stopped buzzing. I still keep an optimistic eye open for anything that I don’t recognise though.
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I love the photos! 🙂 They are so beautiful! 🙂
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Thank you Trini 🙂
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🙂 Give Fizz a hug from me! 🙂
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That’s just not right that something so lusciously tempting should be poisonous! Sort of like the whole Garden of Eden thing, eh?
Lovely photos!
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Thanks Sammy 🙂
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It’s interesting how some of the prettiest things in nature are some of the deadliest. These are great shots. Hope you still get some more sunshine!
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Thanks Sarasin 🙂
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I love these berries. Always wanted to know what they were. I used to want a pair of earrings made of them. They do look poisonous.
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Thank you Barb 🙂 I have been trying to find accounts of people being poisoned by them and I can’t actually find any. From that I conclude that yes they must look poisonous to most people.
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That’s the first time I’m seeing that kind of flower/fruit. This is so pretty !
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Thanks Gin 🙂 I have a theory that things are invisible until we learn their names. Once I know about something I start seeing it everywhere. Keep a look out, these are fruiting now and if you see one in the next couple of weeks that will prove my theory that despite the extraordinary bright colour these were actually invisible to you until now. 🙂
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I’m so happy the sun came out…what beautiful photographs!
I hope berry flan does not show up anywhere! Seems yummy to look at, but do not touch. What a shame such beauty can be so deadly!
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Thanks Ettel 🙂 That always seems to be the way with nature.
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Oh, but what a beautiful poison pie it would be…..
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Thank you Barbara 🙂 Yes pie is so tempting 😀
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I am glad the sun came out at last if only for a short time. The spindle berry photos are just as beautiful as I thought they’d be.
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Thank you Clare 🙂 There seem to be quite a few Spindles springing up around here, suddenly conspicuous. Are there many around your way?
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There are a few but not as many as I’d like! There is one in the hedge between our garden and next-door (it belongs to the people next-door) and I have been looking at it all through the spring and summer and taking photos. I have been so busy for the past couple of weeks that I haven’t looked to see if the berries have burst open yet. I’ll be so cross if I’ve missed it!
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P.S. Could you please let Snowgood know that I saw a Migrant Hawker yesterday 28/10/14 in my garden. Norfolk/Suffolk border.
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Colin, how amazing. Today we both have the same number of followers, of course you deserve more than me, but you generate far more comment than Snowgood.
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Thanks Stephen 🙂 I don’t really look at stats or know how many “followers” I have. I know the ones that really visit me. I saw a blog recently that boasted twelve thousand followers but he was only getting about twenty likes on his posts. When somebody that I know goes off the radar for a few days I start to worry about them, I don’t think that I could cope with hundreds of followers 🙂
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Fair enough, by the way I’m still hoping you’ll keep me posted on any dragonfly sightings. I’m curious on how late they’ll be around. Even here in a cool South East I had a fascinating Migrant Hawker up close and personal as I washed my car last Friday. Who know, perhaps it was taking photos to put on a blog, “Human habits” car washing or something along those lines.
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Those Spindle berries are quite unreal in colour. Such great clarity in your images (as usual) – I’m envious of your steady hand and sharp focus.
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Thanks Vicki 🙂 I just had to wait for the light and I was lucky to get it 🙂
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I have nominated you for the One Lovely Blog Award. You can review the rules for the award in my latest post. Thank you for sharing your lovely work!
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Thank you so much Doris 🙂 That is really nice of you. I haven’y really figured out awards yet, I am not ready for them but that is not important. The kindness lies in nominating me and I am very grateful 🙂
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beautiful pink! never seen spindle berries before. thanks for the warning about it though.
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Thank you Lisa 🙂 Euonymus europaeus is also known as the European Spindle, I don’t think it gets out to San Francisco but probably features in some of your botanical gardens. I see that there is a Euonymus americanus (Strawberry Bush) but that is Eastern USA. I hope that you see one on your travels 🙂
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Thank you! I hope so too! 🙂 If I see it in a botanical garden near me, I will post a picture. 🙂
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I think you may have solved the conundrum of the ?’Doricum in Wales’. The plant colonising our stream side looks suspiciously like a Spindle Tree — I’m off to have another look then I’ll look it up. Thank you — I thought you would know what it is!
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Thanks Diana 🙂 But the Doricum is no Spindle tree. From the shape of the leaves and the way that the pink flowers cluster I would guess that it is a type of knotweed. Have a look at this post
https://atrampinthewoods.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/redshank-persicaria-maculosa/
And if that link doesn’t work just put Redshank into my search box. I am not saying that this is Redshank although it might be, have a look for the distinct spot on the leaves next summer that gives it the name Lady’s Thumb. It looks like the same family to me.
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Thank you — the flowers look very similar — I shall look up the other members of the family.
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Can’t get enough of your beautiful flora. Oh, and keep Fizz out of those berries. Buzzy goes out and eats my strawberries every morning since he saw the birds and turtles getting them! I don’t know if he likes them or just wants to deprive someone else.
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Thanks Ibeth 🙂 I loved your story about switching your Mama in the dirt 🙂 You write beautiful little pieces.
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Thanks, but that was a story from my mother’s memoir. She did the illustration. Oh, I did write it, though.
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Great floral photos! Wow! The UK gets a lot of rain! And dark! And mud! But it’s still very beautiful. Great post! Happy Trails!
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First you tempt us with photos of these gorgeous berries – then you drop it on us that they are poisonous! Now I have an unsated desire for berry pie. Hrmph.
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Such a gorgeous, almost tropical color. Reminds me of bougainvillea.
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I love that observation that things are invisible until you know their names. Life is like that in a lot of different ways! Love the color of these berries!
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