Pitfour again

Pitfour: Bluebells and Pink Purslane under the trees by the canal 

The blue spikes of Bugle in  damp spot by the lake

Family outing: almost all of the 60 or so swans have recently left the lake leaving only a couple of possibly injured swans and this family of 9 cygnets and their parents.

Victorian Violas at Chelsea

Clay pots on the bothy window sill in the artisan garden,  The Topiarist Garden at West Green House

Massed violas on the Victorian Viola stand in the Great Pavilion.
The stand was awarded a sliver medal.

Abigail

Pretty pale yellow flowers marked with a delicate blue 

Marmalade
This the flowers of this scented viola are pale primrose when they first open but gradually turn to lilac

Grey Granite especially wanted to visit this stand to chose some perennial violas for her garden and selected   Marmalade and Abigail. These are to be planted in blue salt glaze pots. She was given advice on cultivation and urged to use traditional clay  or salt glaze pots, not plastic which allow the roots to become overheated, dry out quickly and are extremely nasty in every respect.

Floella, a shortlisted contender for Plant of the Year 2014

Grey Granite looks forward to purchasing this beautiful mauve, scented viola when it becomes commercially available next year.

Whitelinks: The Mystery of the Prickly Beachballs

 Whitelinks beach, particularly towards the Kittyloch, has been invaded by  hundreds of hedgehog like accumulations of what appears to be mainly marram grass roots mixed with other fibrous matter including plastic and feathers. These objects vary in size from tennis ball to melon.

I think occasional ones have appeared here and a Fraserburgh in the past, but the uniformity of the balls and the sheer quantity is quite extraordinary. Definitely not animal in origin, Rufus was not interested in sniffing or rolling, the pungently dead seal was of more interest to him!

Presumably they are formed  by vegetation beginning to accumulate and being rolled back and forth by the tide.
Any more specific information about their origin and forming would be appreciated.
Do they have a name?

Chelsea: The DialAFlight Potter's Garden

Out of the entire Chelsea experience this small, informal  Artisan garden, designed by Francesca and Emma of Frogheath Landscapes,  spoke most eloquently to Grey Granite. This was one of several exhibits to acknowledge this the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1.

This was beautiful garden, the most simplistic message Grey Granite took from it was  DO NOT allow plastic pots any where  near the garden.

The garden is based on the restoration of the abandoned bottle kiln at Farnham Pottery, from which, in 1914 'the potters swapped their tools for guns and came back alive'. 

The replica bottle shaped kiln

The cottage style planting is dense and informal and includes wildlife friendly areas

The garden contrasts the potters' pre-war life with that in the trenches. The tranquil pastel colours of the plants contrast with the fiery red of the shards of pots and tiles used in the path linking the two zones, the pottery and the trenches. These are represented by a wall of sandbags littered with shell cases contrasts with the range of old tools and pots in the building at the back of the garden.

Grey Granite's glassblower paternal Grandfather,  and a ploughman maternal uncle both fought in this unimaginable conflict and were fortunate to survive. During childhood WW1 was known as 'Grandad's War' to distinguish it from the Second World War in which both parents and a clutch of uncle's had served.

The Reid Loch at Witchhill, Memsie

The Reid Loch
The Red (or Reid) Loch is the remains of the  larger swamp or loch of Kinglasser which was progressively drained during the 17th and 18th centuries. An unspoiled secluded gem, the loch nestles in, mainly deciduous woodland, on the Witchill Estate south of Fraserburgh.

Birch trees line sections of the path which follows the lochside. Bracken was just starting to unfurl beside the path and there were large patches of very pale pink purslane and scatterings of wood sorrel. 

Delicate white flowers of wood sorrel, tinged with pale mauve veins.

A massive fallen beech tree, coming into leaf despite having been completely uprooted by the winter gales.

The trunk had an enormous girth, lying on its side it reached to shoulder height. Graffiti on bark had part of a date ending in 90 the question is was it 1890 or 1990?


In his autobiography, A Buchan Boy', Hubert Mitchell, recalling boyhood visits during the 1930s, to the Witchhill estate, the home of his uncle A.G.Brown, Provost of Fraserburgh and Factor to Lord Saltoun,  describes crossing 'the beech hollow, which was carpeted with rich red gold leaves from which the trees rose like great cathedral pillars. On some were carved the initials and hearts of lovers, Victorians of the last century.'

The mixed plantings of trees, mainly birch, beech, alder, elder, sycamore and rowan with the occasional pine which now surround the loch appear only on the west side in the 1869 OS map but are marked round the shores by the 1928 edition. This map also shows a boathouse referred to by Mitchell, a military looking, metal container like structure which remains on the eastern bank. 

Creamy flowers of Alpine or Red Berried Elder (Sambucus racemosa). The flowers of this species grow in pyramids rather than the flat wide clusters of the more common elder.

Bluebells on the edge of the wood

An  unfurling crosier frond of bracken

Hubert goes on to mention a heronry near the loch, we saw only a pair of unidentified ducks towards the middle of the  shallow loch but unseen woodpeckers were enthusiastically drumming in the trees.

Silver Birch trees infected with the parasitic Witches' Broom fungus (Taphrina betulina) which causes these bunches of twigs resembling birds' nests to form on the infected branches.

According to David Murison the name Witchhill is entirely fanciful and only appears after the building of Witchhill House for Lord Saltoun's factor in 1849. There is no record of witch craft in the area but the name may have been suggested by the nearby Merryhillock or by Hippiehillock in the Philorth policies. Hippie (happy)   is supposed to be a euphemistic reference to the fairy folk who in folk legends lured mortals into  their hillocks where they were kept prisoner in a fairy dance lasting for days or even years. 

The Great Tapestry of Scotland

Along with 40,000 other visitors, Grey Granite recently visited the Great Tapestry of Scotland which is currently being exhibited in Aberdeen Art Gallery. This beautiful tapestry, the brainchild of Alexander Macall Smith, stitched by groups from across Scotland tells the history of the nation in 160 panels.

Below is a selection of favourite panels, in no particular order.

Most require no explanation

Fair Isle

Map of Scotland Today, chosen for the lines from VIolet Jacob's poem Wild Geese

Where would we be without OS maps?

Spring blossom at Philorth, formerly known as Bungyietoun

Philorth Woods have this week caught up with trees in the south and have blossom to rival that in the preceding post.

Wild cherry trees fully in blossom

Whilst  walking through the wood towards Mains of Philorth  we suddenly came upon great drifts of snowy blossom. The silver birches in the distance are just starting to green up. The rooks are also aware that it is Spring and are busy querulously nesting, the wood is loud with their chatter. 

A cherry branch against the sky, the blossom is spread along the younger branches

Blackthorn

Blackthorn blossom

Daffodils and the Lesser Celandines which carpet parts of the wood

The old name for the policies at Philorth was Bungyietoun. This name was in use until 1669 when Mains of Philorth replaces it. Bungyietoun is derived from the Gaelic buidhe - meaning yellow place and toun, Scots for  a farm. David Murison states that this probably refers to the colour of vegetation such as broom, Grey Granite likes to speculate that the carpet of celandines contributed to the name.