Lunch at The Regent and an evening of psychedelia

The day of my technical glitch, had been preceded in the morning by a productive meeting to discuss proposed changes to gardening e-newsletters and all things pertaining to public gardens and their management. Because each of us work equal distance either side of London it was only fair, given how busy we each are to meet half way.

We therefore agreed given the subject matter was gardens, what better place to have our meeting than the cafe at Regents Park. We could combine our meeting with a walk through the park to look at various aspects of management in its formal gardens.

Starting in the herbaceous memorial gardens it was impressive to see the managers (The Royal Parks), were ignoring the advice usually given by most garden books. That is to cut down and tidy all the dead stems of herbaceous plants in the autumn. This deprives lots of beneficial insects somewhere to live over the cold winter months. Anyone with any interest in wildlife would leave the stems over winter and remove them just before spring, when in actual fact the work involved is also less strenuous.

Dead herbaceous stems can look quite pretty during winter and add a host of hues to an otherwise colourless flower border, as well as structure and shape. Here's a few shots to illustrate what I mean

(c Rotton Yarns)

While walking in the gardens, we found a bumblebee out in search of nectar! Given as you can see we'd a recent fall snow with more forecast for the following day, then this little lass was certainly braving the elements in her quest of nectar. This clearly demonstrates the value of having a supply of nectar giving plants year round. The plant she was visiting was the winter flowering Shrubby honeysuckle Lonicera fragrantissima 

(c Rotton Yarns)

Further around the gardens we happened on another little gem for early nectar in the form of the Lenten rose Helleborus orientalis. 

(c Rotton Yarns)

Just as we finished our walk through the park to go our separate ways, we came across the local herons stood at the edge of the frozen lake. Normally quite a shy bird, these guys have become so used to people handing them food they are quite approachable. I remember in the early 1970's when they first began to breed in the park, causing quite a stir at the time as it was a first for Central London. 

Grey heron (c Rotton Yarns)

It was later in the evening having downloaded my pictures from the trip and trying to view them on my photo editor in preparation for my next blog when suddenly the computer screen went all psychedelic in strange colours and then the screen went black to the accompaniment of me mumbling something about parts of a male anatomy!