6 Years On!

It is now 6 years since I started doing this blog and boy, has it been the most challenging year I've ever had. To be honest, I have considered quitting it. Not only has the whole lockdown thing been keeping me from really going very far, Blogger has had a bit of a makeover recently, which has taken a bit of getting used to. You have probably noticed that I don't post that much anymore and when I do, there's a different format to how I usually do my posts. I now write everything I've done collectively whenever I feel like it. However, I'm hoping that I will start a new wildlife challenge or two for next year if things go to plan, so look forward to that.

Now that it is now winter, I just haven't been out much other than work and Strumpshaw on Wednesdays (I will post update soon!). But back in May, after being bored out of my mind during lockdown, I decided to make the most of this plentiful free time exploring the city of Norwich, the place I call home, and to get to grips with a subject I'm not too good at. Plant hunting became an almost daily quest and it gave me some joy in a time which was rather uncertain. I got to visit places near my home that I barely go to and I've discovered some things I never knew I could find in this urban environment.

I only officially started this unexpected new hobby 2 months into lockdown, but I was already accumulating a large list of plants. There were still a few species that were lingering from April when I first started such as honesty, bluebells and cowslip as well as mid-May plants that were only just sprouting like bird's-foot trefoil, ox-eyed daisies, forget-me-nots, poppies and red valerian. When spring became summer, more and more exciting and colourful plants were appearing. Among them were orchids, which I managed to find 4 species (bee, southern mars, common spotted and pyramidal). There were also a few very special species like arrowhead, flowering rush, river water-dropwort, sand spurrey, cudweed and dwarf mallow.

For a city, you'd be amazed on how many types of habitats Norwich has. There's of course the grassy fields and woodlands of the local parks and the river Wensum, but there's also the heathlands of Mousehold Heath, the broads of Whitlingham and the boggy meadows of Thorpe Marshes and Carey's Meadow, not to mention the cemeteries, the tiny patches of unused land and even the between the cracks in the pavement in the city itself. Some of these plants were only found at one site, while many others I found pretty much everywhere. As I'm pretty much a novice at plant IDing, I used an app on my phone to help me out for the most part, though for how accurate it is I'm not a hundred percent sure. I have lost count on the amount of times I took a photo of something yellow only for it being either cat's-ear or smooth sow-thistle. I expect that for every hundred or so species I've found, another few hundred or so eluded me due to my inexperience. 

When autumn came around, it was all about trees. The colours on the leaves were changing and were spectacular this year, unlike the weather which was awful throughout much of October. Just like the wildflowers I've discovered throughout the spring and summer, it was an interesting mix of native and non-native species. Though I tried to exclude escapees as best I could, I only included the ones I found that weren't growing in someone's garden. In the case of non-native trees, I only included the ones along my local streets rather those planted in some of the public parks such as Chapelfield Gardens where so many exotic trees were purposefully planted. 

My list was pretty big to really count or mention fully here, but here's a few other highlights; lords and ladies, wild strawberry, field pansy, ivy-leaved toadflax, groundsel, heath groundsel, common fumitory, meadow saxifrage, celery-leaved buttercup, large bittercress, viper's bugloss, common broomrape, clary sage, biting stonecrop, bell and ling heather, vervain, enchanter's nightshade, hare's-foot clover, dark mullein, fig-leaved goosefoot, amphibious bistort, centaury, soapwort, gallant soldier, sun spurge, pellitory-of-the-wall, corn spurrey, autumn crocus, genko tree, mistletoe.

Now that it is December, the plant hunt has ground to a halt. I will continue the list up until next May to make it a complete year. If you know any plants I can look for from now until next spring, let me know. I would love to find something new before Christmas. Thank you all for all your support on this project so far. I know many of you have enjoyed my urban plant hunting adventures and I'd love for them to continue.