Rain, a novelty ,no extreme heat and the sun is nowhere to be seen . The Canada geese seemed to be enjoying the showers. The plants seemed greener already, the teasels were battered but still lovely.

A fantastic moth, so brilliant to watch it feed at Batsford Arboretum.

Batsford arboretum was full of surprises this week.

A very rare tree , Emmenopterys henryi was flowering for the first time ever at Batsford , it is 25 years old. It is thought that this years extreme weather, snow earlier and now the heat wave have triggered this flowering.

This is only the 6th time that this species has flowered in Britain.

The tree was discovered by an Irish plant hunter Augustine Henry in Central China in 1887 and was first cultivated in England in 1907.

The flowers were not obvious at first look they were st the very top of the canopy.

Another fantastic Chinese tree was glorious The tree has huge long catkin type structures 45 cm long. It is called Pterocarya macroptera var insignis. Known as a wing nut and part of the walnut family.

I would love a walk in a Chinese forest , the plants are amazing.

Walking though the arboretum our eyes were caught by a bird a long way in the field, with my new lens I managed to see that it was a green woodpecker.

Green woodpeckers are the largest of the three British woodpecker species. There are 52,000 breeding pairs in the U.K. Their favourite food is ants, they dig them up and eat them with their long sticky tongue .

A great visit .

At Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean the river is fantastic to watch . It has shallows and islands and fast running channels ( where the canoes like to go )

Along the bank of the river the wild flowers are brilliant at the moment.

Purple Loosestrife ( Lythrium salicaria)

Hemp Agrimony ( Eupatorium cannabinum)

Marsh woundwort (Stacey’s palustris)

And the wonderfully named sneezewort.

Sneezewort (Achilles ptarmica)

This plant is known by a series of names , sneezewort,sneezeweed,European pellitory, fair maid of France or white tansy.

Bunches of sneezewort were carried by bridesmaids at West Country weddings they were thought to ensure a happy life for the bride and groom.

The roots have been dried and ground up as sneezing powder.

The plants are known to be poisonous to cattle and horses.

A rather plain plant with some great stories around it.

The whole riverbank was full of flowers and bees and other insects , the river Wye was literally teeming with tiny fish and others larger ones chasing these tiny ones making them jump out of the water. Absolutely brilliant!

Exciting news , yesterday we were enjoying sitting by the river Wye at Lydbrook ,we were unaware that above us in the woods beavers were being released into the wild . These are the first beavers to live in the forest for 400 years. It is hoped that as they grow in numbers and build dams ,these will help with the flooding below where we were in Lower Lydbrook.

The river is gorgeous here. There were people swimming and brilliant damselflies and above us scurrying beavers !!

Walking down to the River Wye in Hay on Wye today I was struck by the very intricate sculpture on the railing.

It took a while to realise,just as it launched off the bridge that this sculpture was s heron!

It had been sitting on the railing as the cars went by . It glided down to the river bank and the flew under the bridge. A couple of photos below a bit far away to be crisp. I should have realised when it was statue like on the bridge.

This trip to Wales is full of mosses and lichens, the woods are carpeted and coated .

Yesterday a walk on the rocks along the coast from Porthmadog was also full of Lichens this time on the rocks, they caught my eye.

They are colourful and more beautiful the closer you look. They certainly take some extremes, wind, heat,sea spray , with no respite.

A few days ago on the ruins of Wenlock Priory I also noticed some interesting lichens.

I am looking for an identification guide specifically for lichens, it would be great to learn more about them, I find them very interesting .

I have a new lens for my camera. Most of the photos I have posted have been from my phone. It is frustrating trying to photograph birds close up.

This new lens had its first proper outing yesterday. Walking back through some dune slacks and into some scrub woodland this young bird volunteered to have his picture taken . I think it is a young Robin , I’m pleased to be able to capture such a close image hopefully I will get better with practice .

A video of the Wenlock bumblebees placeholder://

A stop at Wenlock Priory yesterday in the sun was full of busy bumblebees , lots of different species. The one thing they had in common was the lavender. This was just past it’s best but smelt heavenly and was providing food for hundreds of bumble bees and two white butterflies!

This has again convinced me that I need to plant big areas of lavender in the garden front and back.