Flowers in Swaledale
On Saturday I took a walk in the light drizzle down to Isles bridge and up Haverdale Beck and across towards Gunnerside and then back down on the Swale Trail to the house along by the River Swale.
And as I stepped outside I was taken by just how many different sorts of flowers there were along the route. And just how many of them I have no idea what they are! So I decided to expose my ignorance by photographing a number of them and where possible naming them but as you will see it’s pretty embarrassing!
So here they are in a rough order as I happened across them. I stopped after a while as I got distracted by the dog trying to break my arm investigating rabbits, dead or alive, and it also got quite sticky so I was sweating a fair bit and attracting more flies than normal.
I know, pretty rubbish, but they are pink and pretty sure they are flowers!
And here’s the thing. I am so hopeless at identifying flowers and plants some of these are almost certainly classified as weeds, but to me pretty is pretty, so in my mind these are all super lovely flowers.
Yes, another one I don’t know but is very yellow!
As we walked up towards Haverdale Beck it was amazing to see just how many flowers there were. Ps Haverdale beck is steep but take the gate to the left as you walk up the road and check out the waterfalls.
Ok, I am pretty sure this is a thistle, and pink ‘un at that . Or purple. Point is I think I know what it is.
Onwards and upwards we went, avoiding the cow pats ,silage and dead rabbits - a pretty even split until we found these beauties.
Yup, no idea.
By now we were getting a bit fed up with the ever changing weather. I was sweating and getting rained on, in a fairly Scottish sort of way. Sort of a heavy mizzle but being made of stern stuff we soldiered on
This was a really delicate wee flower, there were bees but never work with animals and children.
Suffice it to say there were plenty of flowers, so less chat, more photos.
Ok, foxglove, we have these by the house so be careful but they are so lovely to look at and go through so many colour changes as they mature.
Elderflower, takes me back to living in Somerset and homemade wine. Mmmm.
Not a flower, but raspberries. I’ll be back, hopefully, in a few weeks and pick these bad boys.
Got to get the dog in, but she was distracted by the ducks so not a great shot. Purple flowers in there somewhere.
So there you have it, a selection of wild flowers, weeds, fruit when walking in Swaledale. Either way I loved the variety and had a great walk despite the rain and slightly overcast conditions. It did brighten up later on so I got so sit outside the Punchbowl Inn with Skye for a pint.
For duck footage head to our Swale View Instagram account for ducks and more.