It’s already the end of June and I have become addicted to picking elderflower. I have enjoyed making Elderflower Cordial with my youth Group and plan to pop into the chippy and ask if they can batter some elderflower heads to make fritters…what dya reckon?
For my personal project Dr Max Coleman and I found inspiration from the northern marsh orchid of which was hiding under the bench within the youth groups garden. This lovely flower was shown to us by one on the youth leaders. So, It has been decided that we will help our youth group create a mini wildlflower meadow.
This dramatic orchid can grow up to 30 cm tall, with deep purple flowers which have crimson streaks all over them.
On Tuesday I discovered the wonderful world of ferns on a day trip with Dr Heather Mc Haffee. I learnt how to identify different types of ferns and now have a good understanding about their life cycle.
Yesterday I got to watch baby sparrowhawks get ringed, they got plucked out of thier nest and put in a bag and sent down to be ringed by RSPB expert Alan Leitch. I managed to film this process and also I gave the little chicks a stroke and a few reassuring words. Shortly after I returned to the RBGE John Hope Gate way to check out the live cam and make sure they had settled back in okay. Please see the Sparrowhawk nestcam and also the video footage of the ringing process:
http://www.rbge.org.uk/the-gardens/sparrowhawk-nestcam
Hope you enjoyed your quick update thanks for reading and I will leave you with a quote:
“Plants capture energy from the sun and all life on land, directly or indirectly, depends on them. So, ultimately, plants fuel the diversity of life on earth.”
‘Sir David Attenborough