Northumberland Coast

Just come back from a couple of days on the Northumberland coast, which was windy, cold but indescribably beautiful.

Cullernose point.......

.......with its breeding colony of  kittiwakes and fulmars, which also has .....



.... sea spleenwort fern growing is fissures beside the seabirds' nests.

Gorse, between Craster and Dunstanburgh flowering more profusely than I can ever remember and, appropriately, providing a perch for this ....

















... stonechat (??)

Primroses by the sea near Craster

Sea pink Armeria maritima blooming in a rock crevice at Cullernose point

The other common name for sea pink is thrift, a virtue that it was used to symbolise on the old pre-decimalisation brass threepenny pieces.. 

Scurvy grass flowering on the wall of Craster harbour

Knotted wrack Ascophyllum nodosum on the intertidal rocks at Low Newton, along with ....

... channelled wrack Pelvetia canaliculata growing around a rock pool

A Day on the Durham coast

Some plants and animals from a day walking on the cliffs between Seaham and Hawthorn Dene on the Durham coast last week





















Dozens of fully grown drinker moth caterpillars on the steps leading down to Blast beach ...






















..... some had even made it all the way down to the beach

Masses of bird'sfoot trefoil in full bloom on the edge of the limestone quarry

Bloody cranesbill coming into bloom on he magnesian limestone grassland

Wonderful display of buttercups in the meadows at Hawthorn Dene

Not many early purple orchids, but some nice specimens

Some glorious displays of hawthorn near Hawthorn Dene. Best year for hawthorn blossom that I can remember

Common milkwort around the quarry area

There's not a lot of sea pink along this coastline but in full bloom























A goldfinch that seemed to be ill and was reluctant to fly, but with no visible signs of injury

.... and finally, fulmars soaring along the cliffs

Flowery Tynemouth

There's a fine display of wild flowers around Tynemouth Priory at present. The top of the cliff is carpeted with red valerian. This plant, from south west Europe, was first recorded in Britain's gardens in 1597 and began spreading into the wild in 1763 - and it's still spreading, especially in coastal locations where it likes to grow in the mortar of old buildings. It produces a lot of nectar and is one of the plants that hummingbird hawk-moths like to visit.

Down on Tynemouth pier this sea pink (aka thrift) plant is thriving between the rusty old railways lines that once supported the travelling cranes that unloaded ships berthed alongside the pier.

The second introduced plant species that carpets the cliffs here is  Alexanders, a green-flowered umbellifer from southern Europe that was introduced by the Romans and grows in great profusion here. Its glossy leaves are edible and it was once cultivated as a pot herb, but by the 15th. century had been replaced in the garden by more palatable celery.

The native wild food plant that graces these cliffs is wild cabbage, the ancestor of garden cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and kale which produces these spectacular sprays of yellow flowers.

A Flower for our Financial Times?

These delightful sea pinks Armeria maritima were beginning to come into full bloom along the Durham coast at Hawthorn Hive at the weekend.

The alternative common name of sea pink is thrift, although no one seems quite sure why this came about. Richard Mabey, in his Flora Britannica, suggests that it may have been because its tufted leaves were economical with water in the windy locations where it's commonly found.

Those, like me, who are old enough to remember pre-decimalisation currency will recall that some of the old 12-sided brass threepenny pieces carried the botanical embled of a thrift plant on the back, as a reminder of the importance of being prudent with money. Bearing in mind the current economic predicament of the country, maybe it's time to use the same emblem on today's currency?