Trumpington Meadows Monday 9th March

I visited Trumpington Meadows on Monday on a cool cloudy day so no high expectations of insect activity but some interesting finds in the woodland areas and great to see cowslips already in full bloom in places. Usual ID sheet at end - the beetle larva keyed out as a Rose Chafer but will need to check this one - found in nearby site so possible.

Garden Project May 2025

 With this last week's warm temperatures, a  lot of flowers have come into bloom while others are dying away. It is definitely Red Campion time making wonderful splashes of colour everywhere contrasting with the blue Alkanet and Centaurea. Buttercups have largely taken over from Cowslips in the meadow, the Bogbean is in bloom in the pond, the Perennial Alyssum is attracting lots of insects along with the three species of Spurge  etc!!

Waresley Wood Bluebells and Other Spring Flowers

Although there are a lot fewer areas of dense Bluebells to previous years, mainly due to the very vigorous Dog's Mercury growth in open areas, there are some dense areas. Today's early cloudy and periodically wet weather was ideal to record the delicate  blue colour. Later we had some sunny intervals which picked out the heads of the Early Purple Orchids (around 50 counted)  and single Bluebells well. I couldn't resist photographing a very impressive Cowslip plant and the Giant Horsetails in the meadow.

 

Soft Focus Spring Flowers

Generally photographers spend a lot of time trying to get maximum depth of field and very sharp focus so it was fun photographing Bluebells etc with an old lens (Olympus 50mm manual f1.8 lens from my original film camera system) attached to a modern digital body working wide open and shooting into the light or with foliage very close to the lens (work in progress).

 

Caldecote Old Rectory Spring Garden

 An absolute delight to photograph some of the flowers in the old Rectory garden adjacent to the Church with its mix of wild, naturalised and planted species all looking wonderful in the sunlight this morning. The footpath from Caledecote to Toft runs through this meadow but I am delighted that as usual the owners are opening the whole garden in aid of the Church on the 17th and 18th May 2025 with teas etc. Put that date in the diary - by then the herbaceous borders etc will also be in bloom.