It’s midweek and already my brain has turned to blancmange. So for everyone’s sake, I’ll keep today’s post simple.
Living by the seaside, we need not stray very far to marvel at nature’s resourcefulness. Occupying a variety of precarious positions, chalk-loving wild flowers punctuate the white cliffs around Broadstairs from spring until late autumn. Pictured above is Stone Bay, one of the prettiest and most popular of our town’s beaches.
Following intrepid golden wallflowers, Cineraria maritima and Valeriana officinalis comes the everlasting sweetpea, Lathyrus latifolius, scrambling fearlessly through windswept brambles.
The lipstick pink trusses become entwined with the frothy white flowers of Clematis vitalba, old man’s beard, featured at the top of this post. Close by, the mustard-yellow stems of a waning umbellifer stand out clearly against sand and sea.
A rhapsody in silver-green and frosted plum are the seedheads of escaped rapeseed plants (Brassica napus) preparing to start a new family of cliff dwellers.
Who needs gardens when nature can look this good, eh?
