Daisies and dandelions

Shhh! Don't let the Council know that it's forgotten to mow the verges for a while....

Down among the Dahlias

Whoever does the planting at  East Park's Star Gardens is clearly a dahlia fan as every year the display seems to get better. 

I thought, maybe, a little panorama would not be out of place.

Summer meadow in the heart of town

On Blackfriargate a patch of land has been left to sort itself out and that is just what it's doing in a colourful way, of course. This mad mix of poppies, clovers, teasels and grasses is all free and could be available across town and country if councils parked up their grass mowers until Autumn. 

My left foot

Here's one of Margot's photos of irises on Ella Street and me waiting patiently and not quite out of view in the background ...

To see the cherry hung with snow

I don't know if A E Housman ever came to the City of Culture but if he did I'm sure he'd have appreciated these loveliest of trees even if they are on Clough Road which is as far from a woodland ride as you can get.

Margot, who is quite possibly Mr Housman's number one fan, took this.

Perhaps Wendy Cope is a bigger fan.

I think I am in love with A.E. Housman,
Which puts me in a worse-than-usual-fix.
No woman ever stood a chance with Housman,
And he’s been dead since 1936.

Wendy Cope

Forget-me-nots

Exactly five years ago this wholesome old romantic posted the first of the Hull and Hereabouts on the pleasant subject of private property and shopping. Well I had to start as I meant to go on I suppose. Anyhow after five years of austerity and working together to secure a solid recovery for all the people of this country and ... sorry, sorry, you try to avoid so many election broadcasts but they seep in by osmosis ...oh yes now where was I? Hmm, now the old fool is reduced to posting pretty flowers and wondering how quick the time flies and thinking how little things have really changed ....

No April showers have come our way

WELCOME, wild North-easter!
Shame it is to see
Odes to every zephyr;
Ne’er a verse to thee.

Charles Kingsley

Somehow Spring has sprung without me really noticing it. Though it looks nice and sunny the picture cannot begin to describe the slightly nithering north-easter that is flowing across the land giving the feeling of walking through a tub of ice-cream. And it's been a really dry April so the droghte of Marche has not been sooted as they used to say.

Bee and Burdock

Asked by City Daily Photo to post my favourite photo from the year just ended I pondered for a while but in the end  it had to be this close up of a tree bumble bee enjoying the nectar of a burdock flower. These bees were first spotted in the UK as recently as 2001 but are now quite common, they've even nested under my kitchen roof and, of course, they are most welcome. Read more about Bombus hypnorum here.

You can see other favourites of the past year here.

Blooming lovely

Yesterday was a bit of a dull, overcast day, anticyclonic gloom is the meteorological word for it, any hoo this did nothing to detract from the colourful display round Queen's Gardens' fountains. 

Speaking of blooms I came across a nice short film on the Avenues Open Day, where private gardens are opened for the public to raise money for Dove House Hospice. It's only fourteen minutes long and best watched without HD unless you've got a good connection. Oh yeah, it's here.

Finally if things go the way of a certain group to the north of here this blog may soon be coming to you from a different country. We live in exciting times.... *yawn*

Catalpa bignonioides

I came across this tree a fortnight ago and it was covered in these pretty flowers that I've never seen the likes of before. Now I know my record on tree identification is exactly tiptop, the infamous jacaranda that turned out to be a foxglove tree sticks in my mind. Nevertheless I'm pretty confident that this is a Catalpa tree because its other name is Indian Bean tree and today it's covered in hundreds of what look just like French runner beans. It's also sometimes called the cigar tree because you can smoke these pods for some mild effects, so I'm told. It comes originally from South-eastern USA. Quite how this specimen got to be hiding in plain sight on Clough Road I can't imagine.

Abutilon

Taken by Margot K Juby

It's been hot and stuffy and I can't be bothered with anything to with Hull or anywhere else for that  matter. So here's an abutilon that I grew from seed this year.

Flowers

Along the riverside it's an all too common sight to see these little floral tributes to those who died at sea and also, as  has just been pointed out to me, those whose ashes are scattered on the Humber.

"When gorse is out of bloom kissing's out of fashion"

Took myself off to Beverley Westwood and had the place practically to myself, just an occasional dog walker, an errant golf player or two, a few crows, oh and a couple of skylarks to lighten the spirits. There were banks of wood anemones and this large gorse bush blooming away which was just as well if that old saying has any truth to it.

That was the Winter that wasn't

So a season with no snow, no frosts to speak of, a bit of rain and mild ...meh! I don't call that Winter. Still I'll have saved on the old gas bills and so forth. So from 16.57 GMT it's officially Spring (I had to look that up) and it'll probably snow, did last year.

Morning Glory

Well actually mid-afternooon glory. This little delight was blooming away just outside my front door yesterday afternoon enjoying the warmth of the October sunshine. Today it's turned pink and curled up as they do. Oh and the warmth has gone as well with a biting northerly wind setting in.

Poppies

Usually the Council are zealous in their extermination of weeds, sending out a small army of  workers with tanks of weed killer spraying every nook and cranny. Whether it's austerity or just plain bad management (at which the Council excels) this year there seem to be more wild flowers in unexpected places. I'm not complaining.