Breamish Valley logo linking to Home Page

Nature Shorts

Walking along the river

One of my favourite things to do is to go for a walk along the River Breamish and see what kinds of natural things I can find. There’s always something new and interesting to discover, like a colourful flower, a fragrant herb, or a fungus. I often take pictures of them and then look them up online later to learn more about them. Other times I just enjoy them without feeling any need to record what I’ve seen.

Read More

Digitalis purpurea

What a great summer for Digitalis purpurea

If you’ve been out and about over the past few weeks, then you’ll probably have noticed what a great summer it is this year for Digitalis purpurea – that’s the common foxglove in everyday parlance. Is it the combination of a hard winter frost and snow followed by lots of rain and a short heat wave that’s made them so prolific? Whatever the case, the Digitalis purpurea are plentiful this year – and looking stunning!

Read More

Musk Mallow

Gentle perfume of the musk mallow

When is a plant a weed? When is a weed a flower to enjoy? I guess it’s all about context. There are lots of flowers that we can see growing in our hedgerows and along field margins that, if transplanted to a garden, would be considered a ‘flower’.

Read More

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Long time passing?

According to Pete Seeger’s 1955 political folk song, the answer to the question ‘Where have all the flower’s gone? is ‘Young girls have picked them everyone.’ Well, they’d have to have been very busy along the Breamish Valley to account for the ‘disappearance’ of the monkey-flower Mimulus.

Read More

Community Garden Improvements

In addition to the new wall to protect the well in the Powburn Community Garden, further improvements are well underway.

A planter that will be used to create a bed of red roses has been constructed and installed at the Breamish Valley War Memorial. The angular, U-shaped wooden planter was made to the same high standards as the Bolton Road Sign Planters and the Powburn Road Sign Planters by Chris Armit from Newcastleton (Chris constructed the Bolton and Powburn planters).

Read More
UK Web Archive logo

The British Library is preserving this site for the future in the UK Web Archive at www.webarchive.org.uk