flowers at Brantwood
flowers at Brantwood
Including the hay-meadow, woods and heathland A major solo exhibition of watercolours by Sally Bamber 5th September to 1st November 2015
flowers at Brantwood Contents 8 12
Opening from Dinah Brown Message from the garden, Jane Alexander
15 16 35 60 61 62
The Hay-Meadow Poems from the hay-meadow, Maggie Norton Gathering the goodness Giving tongue Clock’s ticking, farmer! Lovely and lush Invitation to a meadow
65 97 112 136 175
The Mountain Garden The Fern Garden Various locations around Brantwood The Hortus Inclusus Garden The Trellis Walk
200 Index of flowers
Contributions from these friends Dinah Brown Dinah is one of my arty friends with whom I share a keen interest in getting together at exhibitions to really engage on what we are seeing and experiencing, we also have times of drawing and painting together in beautiful parts of the Lakes. Dinah is a counsellor who uses expressive creativity in her practice. www.counsellingandcreativity.co.uk/index.html Jane Alexander Jane is an energy practitioner and intuitive who works from a place of deep awareness of the interconnected nature of all things. She offers treatments and workshops which arise from this sense of her connection to life; working with crystals, plant energy, sound and massage. www.sacredspace-reiki.co.uk Sarah Atkinson Sarah is a Medical Herbalist, she focuses on what we eat and drink combined with listening to peoples life stories, which makes her approach to dis-ease much more holistic. www.medicine-garden.com Maggie Norton Maggie is a poet, children's novelist, editor and writing tutor. Sally first met Maggie at her show ‘Flowers in my Garden’ at Natterjacks Coffee House & Art Gallery, Ulverston, in 2013. They are collaborating on a new book of wildflower poems and watercolours.
Dinah Brown opening Jane Alexander insights Sarah Atkinson anecdotes Maggie Norton poems Sally Bamber watercolours
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“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one” John Ruskin Like Ruskin, whose garden inspired this collection of watercolours, Sally’s preference is for modest flowers. Acquiring Brantwood in 1871, it was alpines and native wild flora that Ruskin selected when creating his woodland garden amongst the ferns and rocks on the steeper reaches of his Lakeland estate. His delicate Victorian watercolour flower studies further reflect this taste for small unassuming plants. In 2013, when Sally was asked to submit a proposal for an exhibition of flower paintings to be held at Brantwood, she was inspired to use the flowers in its environment as her theme. At the outset, she felt daunted by the enormity of the project. The turning point came when Brantwood’s head gardener, Sally Beamish, invited her to record the dawn scything of the hay meadow. This enabled Sally to find her artistic focus. From then on, guided by her curiosity, she was drawn to the quieter, predominantly wild flowers found in its more hidden leafy corners - the woundworts, ragworts, and bog asphodels on the higher woodland slopes; yellow rattles, plantains and eyebrights in the hay meadow. Over two years, and on frequent visits, these lowlier species inspired her as she explored the garden in its seasonal cycles.
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Having relocated from London to rural Cumbria in 2008, Sally was still relatively unacquainted with wild flowers so encountered them through an artist’s eyes rather than those of an informed botanist. Her resulting paintings express her delight in discovering this world of minute detail and exquisite design. To become intimate with the beauty of small flowers demands the rare faculty of “seeing” clearly, central to Ruskin’s aesthetic. Rooted in patience and a slowing down of time, Sally’s series embodies this freshness of vision. Each painting is layered, created in stages. During the first stage, seated outdoors, close to her plant, Sally draws lightly with coloured crayons on thick watercolour paper to accurately record her subject. Later, back in her studio, using a pheasant’s quill dipped in masking fluid, she emphasises selected outlines and highlights. Then, using fluid watercolours, guided by the original crayoned study, she superimposes a looser painted image over the first to capture the lyrical movement inherent in each plant. She finishes by erasing the masking fluid to reveal the white lines and highlights of the paper ground.
Sally’s love of collaboration permeates this project. Extending the scope of her exhibition, she has frequently embraced the expertise of the team of gardeners, partnered wildflower poet, Maggie Norton and linked with medical herbalist, Sarah Atkinson, and energy practitioner, Jane Alexander. The flower and plant notes contributed by Sarah and Jane offer valuable insight and complement Sally’s watercolours. To celebrate wildflowers is no small matter and particularly relevant in this era, when increasing focus on technology risks tipping our world out of balance. In his recent book, Landmarks, Robert MacFarlane warns of the planetary risk if we lose our nature vocabulary. Children, he claims, no longer know even the most common names of flowers and birds. The quality of wonderment is frequently equated with Victorian sentimentality. Sally, as wildflower artist, is part of a welcome resurgence reconnecting us with nature, her recent watercolours encouraging us all to acquire William Blake’s clarity of vision and “to see heaven in a wild flower”. Dinah Brown
Photograph: Sally in the Brantwood hay-meadow 29th June 2015 Picture taken by Dinah Brown
Message from the garden Jane Alexander Come dance with me; Come play with me; Come rest with me; Come be with me. In my nature, I am a place of hope. I am the place of a rebirth; A place of new connectedness between mankind and Mother Earth. I hold within my reach the energy of awakening; The energy of new growth; The energy of a deepening relationship between Earth and man. Come walk within my leafy walls; Come rest a while; Come allow your mind to wonder at the beauty I contain.
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Wonder opens a doorway. It opens a doorway to the possibility of change. As you wonder, you reconnect with that childhood part of you that was amazed to be alive, that was amazed to be here, in this world. It is easy, is it not, to forget the gift of life? To forget the magic and the majesty; To forget the variation in form that life takes. Here, within my boundaries, you can be reminded once more. My energy makes it safe to be open. Safe to rest in your own heart space - in your own openness. Come join me here. Come meet me with fresh eyes and an open heart.
Brantwood Hay-Meadow The Brantwood hay-meadow project is a direct response to nature itself. Influenced by the thinking of Ruskin, Steiner and Goethe, head gardener Sally Beamish is leading an investigation into the various effects that modern, traditional and biodynamic farming approaches can have within the hay-meadow. “It is the perspective and culture of the approach that is being examined, a sort of parable seeking to open our eyes to the wider challenge of configuring our relationship to nature” writes David Ingram in his book ‘The Gardens at Brantwood’. The project is in its eighth year and Sally realises that there is a huge amount to be gained by becoming carefully aware of our own real intentions when working with the meadow and by observing the responses of others.
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Gathering the goodness This field’s hayed in late July. We lets it lie and turns it over next day we turns again to dry and sets in rows. Led by clover and all flowers have dropped their seeds and now the baling machine recovers rainblest leavings from fragrant weeds and we bales into warm blocks of hay, raw winter’s precious feed by their sleek coats of healthy texture. We’ll have fewer bills from vets during winter’s coming fixture. Until late autumn the meadow rests while wind and weather determine its days, then the stock comes in to graze again on new grass grown with healing rain. Maggie Norton (from Onions and Other Intentions, Indigo Dreams Publishing)
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knapweed centaurea nigra date drawn 150714 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I’ve seen this a thousand times, and I’ve pulled it out as a weed, thinking it unsightly. But now I’ve spent time thinking about them in a new context, as part of the haymeadow family. This particular sprig came out of the chunk of meadow that Brantwood gardener Ruth dug up for me to take home to my studio. Jane_”I am a teacher of genuineness. I help to heal rifts in the personality. I help you to be at peace with who you are, exactly as you were grown. I help you to overcome memories of criticism and feelings that have risen in your being about not being good enough as you are. My energy helps you to be okay with the personality that you have - with the being that you are. I will help you to overcome self-imposed limitations so that you can achieve what you are here to achieve - be who you are. You will feel my effect wherever in your body you are storing memories of past cruelties or where you are carrying self-rejection. I am a gentle healer. I will bring you home to yourself.
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bush vetch vicia sepium date drawn 290615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_During July when so much is green, the purply/ blue of this vetch jumps out, and the curly, tiny tendrils weave their way through the hay-meadow plants.
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catsear hypochaeris radicata date drawn 290615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I’d spent the day running a life-drawing workshop and came down to the meadow for the calm it would offer. I made my way around the top edge and sat with my brolly – the weather looked very moody - and with my paper and coloured pencils, it was time to study this strong yellow flower that always had me thinking of dandelions. My naive identification had it down as hawksbeard but those in the meadow have little ears appearing on the stems. Botanist Louise Moss identified it for me at the dawn scything.
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red clover white clover trifolium pratense trifolium repens date drawn 120814 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I painted this while sitting under the oak at the edge of Coniston Water on a summers’ day. Jane_red clover_ “I am a healer of women. Turn to me when you are trying to make sense of your womanhood or when you are trying to make sense of your relationship with the Earth and your experience of your relationship with your mother or your daughter. I will help you to journey into your womanhood. I will help you to understand what it is to be a spiritual being in a woman’s body, for your existence to be shaped and defined by the rhythms of the moon, by the calling of your own biology. I can activate the profoundest, deepest healing within you. Take me as a tea to open your heart and mind to transformation. white clover_”likewise, I resonate with the healing of the feminine. My energy will take you beyond the more human experience of feminine. I act as a bridge to connection with the divine mother. Turn to me when you are heart sore or alone. I will help you to feel held by life, safe and loved.
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tormentil potentilla erecta date drawn 070615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_In June, 2014, Brantwood gardener Ruth emailed me to say the tormentil was in flower; at this time I was unfamiliar with this plant to be able to meet it properly, there were other flowers to take my attention, harebell in particular. But the memory of it and time during the winter months to review the flowers meant that by the time I came to be in the haymeadow in June 2015, specifically looking for it, I recognised it easily.
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oxeye daisy leucanthemum vulgare date drawn 230615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I’ve seen this in so many places, in the hortus inclusus garden, in the hay-meadow and on the heath and moorlands, but where I love is to see it is on roadsides, including the motorways, giant daisies that bow as you drive past them pulled on your airstream.
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harebell campanula rotundifolia date drawn 250714 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Ruth emailed to say there was harebell on the edges of the meadow after the farmer had finished cutting. I jumped in my car and went straight over. On a lovely sunny day, I tucked myself into the edge of the meadow under the wall to spend some time with the harebell's fine stems that roll and curve to carry the weight of the flower heads.
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ribwort plantain plantago lanceolata date drawn 150514 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Poet Maggie first brought this plant to my attention. I have dismissed it for years as an uninteresting weed, but now I love how the tiny flowers that form a ring around the central bud open so that if it was filmed on a time-lapse it would be like a hoola-hoop rising up the bud! Jane_”My energy is rebalancing. I will help your body to return to its optimum balance so that all your bodily processes may take place with ease.
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Sarah_Ribwort plantain has been used primarily as a healing agent for wounds since Anglo Saxon times - ‘the plant sews the gaping wound together as with a golden thread, and like rust never gathers on gold, so all putridness and proud flesh flies from the ribwort' Father Sebastian Kneipp. When my son Alex and friends were exploring the woods around Beckfoot as fourteen year olds, they obviously took an old unpredictable penknife with them - we found out later. Only one boy cut himself and in anticipation of his cello lesson later the same day he spent the rest of his time with us with his finger wrapped in a pounded plantain leaf. His finger healed cleanly and he always mentioned his herbal experience when ever we met subsequently, whether in favour or fear I was never really sure, he is now studying to become a doctor.
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Giving Tongue Melancholy thistle, stitchwort, chickweed, ragged-robin, forget-me-not, bistort – a ploughman knew the old names, knew when hooves would slow the promise lurking in the sods he tamed, while jackdaw and wintering snipe in a fallow meadow picking for pignut roots knew seed by their fragrance under the snow. Another language sprouted shoots – a bloom of Latin on Lakeland ground: vulgare, officinalis, hirsutus repens, sempervirens, and found with irritans, lanatus, palustris, would infiltrate his tongue’s rich sound. Maggie Norton (from Onions and Other Intentions, Indigo Dreams Publishing)
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lesser stitchwort stellaria graminea date drawn 290615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Dinah and I had carefully made our way around part of the top of the hay-meadow and tucked ourselves in below the wall. It was a warm day and the surrounding sounds were full of birds, bees and visitors to Brantwood. This is such a tiny, delicate looking little plant.
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eyebright euphrasia officinalis date drawn 280614 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Mixed among the hay-meadow flowers, curiously they grew much taller this year than last. Jane_”I cleanse your vision and bring foresight, helping you to discern the best path to take. Turn to my energy when you are in need of support to make decisions and to divine the right way ahead for you. I resonate with the 3rd eye, with dreaming, scrying and with seeking the truth.
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lesser hop trefoil trifolium dubium date drawn 250615 found on the entrance to the hay-meadow Sally_I found this at the entrance to the hay-meadow and thought that it liked rocky terrain as I have it in abundance in my pebbled courtyard at home, I thought it might have been carried into the hay-meadow on wellies, but I am informed that it was recorded in the botanical survey of June 2014 in the ‘abundant’ catagory and is found throughout the meadow. This is good to know as I only ventured into the middle of the meadow once and found myself lifting my feet high before carefully placing them back on the ground, I was concerned about standing on so many owers. Lesser hop trefoil is so small and delicate.
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self heal prunella vulgaris date drawn 230713 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Sarah introduced me to this plant on a herb walk in the Duddon, from then on I saw it everywhere, it is resilient on lawns, growing back each week after mowing, growing tall in the hay-meadow. Sarah_A cooling herb for fevers it contains a wide range of vitamins; it is also anti-bacterial, lowers blood pressure, restores your liver, staunches bleeding, is an excellent eyewash and useful for treating piles. Pulped leaves are superb for healing wounds. Truly 'self heal' said Thomas Bartram.
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red campion silene dioica date drawn 160515 found in the hay-meadow Sally_Sitting in the hay-meadow in the early evening is so peaceful, the campion grows mainly around the edges owering from May to July.
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germander & slender speedwell veronica chamaedrys & veronica ďŹ liformis date drawn 110615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_There is no one place for these speedwells at Brantwood. I keep coming across them and stand on them without realising. On a sunny day they look lovely with all their little blue faces turned to face the sun.
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meadow buttercup ranunculus acris date drawn 230615 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I’ve seen buttercups painted in so many ways that I needed to feel more set in my method of working before I made my own take on its presentation. Buttercups are often abundant and full on, the Brantwood hay-meadow is no exception. Jane_”I uplift the senses. I am resonant with joy - turn to me when you need cheering up or when you have forgotten how easy it is to find joy.
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bird’s foot trefoil lotus corniculatus date drawn 010714 found in the hay-meadow Sally_This is abundant both in the meadow and in my garden, I love the emerging orange ower that opens up in a hot yellow.
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common spotted orchid dactylorrhiza maculata date drawn 030714 found on the Brantwood trail and the hay-meadow Sally_I kept hearing about this flower and imagining something large and dramatic. When I found it I was walking the Brantwood trail where part of the walk is alongside boggy heathland after a steep climb. It was small and dramatic, growing up amongst bog asphodel. I sought it out on Penn, a small fell above where I live, picking two of the flowers, carrying them back to my studio in a bottle of water. In the following days the flower buds opened so that the stem of flowers was long and tall. It is a strong flower, living in the studio for weeks before I returned it to the garden compost, knowing now that I should have taken the seeds to attempt to grow them on the bank below my studio window. Then I saw it in the hay-meadow as I sat making a record of the dawn-scything – lovely. I have since discovered that the orchid in the hay-meadow is ‘common spotted orchid’ and the orchid up on the moorland is possibly ‘common spotted heath orchid’. A classic example of the more I learn, the more I find there is to learn.
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green alkanet pentaglottis sempervirens date drawn 230415 found in the professor’s garden and the hay-meadow Sally_It finds a home in many places. The first time I really noticed it was as it rooted in the same pot at my bonsai horsechestnut, but that's another story. The green alkanet blue flowers are intense, it was great to find it in an alloted location in the Professor's Garden.
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cuckoo flower cardamine pratensis date drawn 070515 found in the hay-meadow and the mountain garden Sally_I found this on the small lawn in the mountain garden, everything here feels miniature. Such a delicate and flowing flower that bends easily in the wind. Once recognised and identified I now see this everywhere and love to see it come up in my garden.
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yellow rattle rhinanthus minor date drawn 120713 found in the hay-meadow Sally_I can recognise the leaves as it grows now. In my little pot of Brantwood hay-meadow I can see the stages it goes through so that when I’m breathing in the hay-meadow I can see it’s progress. Jane_”I contain the wisdom of expansion - I will teach you that it matters not where your seeds fall. It matters not which grow and which do not. It matters that you scatter them.
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Clock’s Ticking, Farmer! Maggie Norton I’m open-mouthed and purple-toothed, hear my pepperpot seed-head prattle in the breeze when I tittle-tattle ‘Time to get up, get cracking on the hay grown tall from seedlings quickened in May – wheel out your machines on a July day!’ I push down suckers into grasses’ roots and steal their minerals as I raise my shoots clear of trampling hooves or boots. I fetch up iron, I fetch up zinc I keep your winter beasts in the pink – yellow rattle, yellow rattle, tink, tink, tink. Maggie Norton (from Onions and Other Intentions, Indigo Dreams Publishing)
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Brantwood Hay-meadow Lovely and Lush lean the owers of marsh and mud: golden kingcups and campion, purple loosestrife and fresh brooklime couched by a stream on the slope whistled at by wagtails and swifts. A rare place to dream on a tranquil afternoon in this sun-raked vale where a bumble like a baby sumo wrestles a blue cranesbill and I crouch in the quiet hay-meadow, listen for honey bee and hover y, watch a trundling beetle and lie doggo if I hear a circling skylark cry over scoops of meadowsweet as high as parsley perfuming the bee's home-run over the hedge and west of the sun. Maggie Norton (from Onions and Other Intentions, Indigo Dreams Publishing)
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Invitation to a Meadow Come to a meadow in sun or shine – always glorious interest, startling, that seriously entertains study; ramble alongside bling-bling jewels of bright yellow in May. What’s about landscape that makes us sing its praises? We say ‘Lovely! And waymarked!’ as if that only matters, as if a stroll by a lake passes the day out of house. Landscapes replenish the spirit, that poor unacknowledged child of our time, who may astonish with its own rich harvest if encouraged by a quiet dressing of green meadows, where dialogue with unmasked self is language
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stripped of any lie that casts a shadow like a thing that should as well have been left unsaid, whose sad echoes resonate further than one can tell. Here is unfiltered experience, for a living landscape casts its spell and kindness to self swells in its influence. Companioned by like-minded cherishers of the fells, an eager audience hears a stream's nourishing overtones, their crescendo and diminuendo, flow through the beauty of a flowering meadow. Maggie Norton (from Onions and Other Intentions, Indigo Dreams Publishing)
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Brantwood Mountain Garden The mountain garden repersents Ruskins interests in nature from his travels and continues to inspire interest in alpine owers.
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devil’s bit scabious succisa pratensis date drawn 260914 found in the mountain garden Sally_I found this on the small lawn in the Mountain Garden where everything here feels miniature. Maggie first mentioned this to me and I spent weeks waiting for it to appear, watching the hedgerows and fields as I drove past, asking everyone about it. Writer Ian Davidson told me it was a September flower. I found it out on one of my morning walks with my daughter Megan, I think she thinks I’m slightly batty about this flower I was so pleased to find it. I found it in Scotland too, on Raasay Island, which is where I was when I painted this, there was so much of it in the garden. It was no surprise to see it happily growing at Brantwood on the small lawn below the house in the Mountain Garden.
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cardamine family cardamine pentaphyllos date drawn 260215 found in the mountain garden Sally_This watercolour shows the early stage of growth. It was difficult to discover its name as I was a little early in the year, eager to draw any small flowers that I found at Brantwood. I sat on my little travel stool and focussed on the movement and interweaving of leaves, which caused some confusion in the identification as there is a seven lobed leaf and a five lobed leaf variety. This one is five. I stood up to stretch, and gasp, for there I was focusing on this small plant and above the hedge that I was sitting below was a magnificent view of Coniston Old Man across the water.
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cardamine family cardamine pentaphyllos date drawn 020415 found in the mountain garden Sally_I had to return to draw this flower at a later stage of its growth. Now the five leaved lobes are clearer and the tall stems are laden with pretty flowers; this is a family member of the cuckoo flower, cardamine pratensis.
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speedwell family veronica species date drawn 020415 found in the mountain garden Sally_I’ve spent some time in the Mountain Garden; more flowers come early here and some are very small. I’ve been quite taken with the speedwells. There are many different types, and my first encounter was when we first moved to Cumbria, the bank outside the studio is heavy with them. This one has more succulent leaves and a hairy top.
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thrift armeria maritima date drawn 040515 found in the mountain garden Sally_I first encountered thrift in Dumfries & Galloway when I was sitting on the cliff edge at Rockcliff with my arty friends, so it was lovely to find it here at Brantwood in the Mountain Garden. I settled myself with my materials to start work when I noticed I was being watched by a slow worm. He was winding through the leaves of the thrift and once he saw I had noticed him he reversed backwards out of sight. There was a second tuft and I moved to a new position to start drawing it, when I noticed the slow worm watching me again, this time he was camouflaged under a leaf of the same colour as his skin.
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lenton rose or christmas rose helleborus hybrid date drawn 020415 found in the mountain garden Sally_This ower was grown from seed by Ruth, the seed is from a pot in her sister’s garden; my sister, who is a master orist, asked that this watercolour be used on her website www.amandarandell.co.uk. The pink veins and outlines drew my attention.
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red hellebore helleborus orientalis hybrid date drawn 020314 found in the mountain garden Sally_This ower painting has the tight pencil drawing made ďŹ rst beneath the watercolour; I made no attempt to paint between the lines.
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red hellebore helleborus orientalis hybrid date drawn 070314 found in the mountain garden Sally_I noticed that Ruth had cut the leaves back so that the growing energy can focus on the owers, these ones I watched as the buds pushed through and grew up like rods till they open out and hang their heads. In my garden I pick the ower heads and place them in a bowl so they oat face up.
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blue anemone anemone blanda blue date drawn 020415 found in the mountain garden Sally_I love this flower. I so enjoyed watching it as it gently moved in the breeze. It’s small and very elegant plant. I confirm that I’m not a botanical artist as each time these paintings are viewed by someone in the botanical know, they are looking at the leaves for clues to the plant I’ve painted and these leaves are very misleading, a clear indication of my learning as I go along.
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alpine campion lychnis alpina date drawn 070515 found in the mountain garden Sally_This is very much like thrift and I’ve since discovered that it relates to campion and to ragged robin too. It's a native of Cumberland.
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hoop petticoat daffodil narcissus bulbocodium date drawn 020415 found in the mountain garden Sally_Such an unusual daffodil I wasn’t sure it was one, but it is.
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brooklime veronica beccabunga date drawn 070515 found in the mountain garden Sally_Another member of the speedwell family, drawn looking down on top of the plant, which made it a little bit more of a challenge to identify.
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snake’s head fritillaria meleagris date drawn 070515 found on the small lawn outside the Severn Studio and in the mountain garden Sally_It was a surprise the first time I met this flower, like something from Alice in Wonderland, it looks somewhat wicked to me. They were numerous on the small lawn outside the Severn Studio, this was drawn in the Mountain Garden, by the small lawn below the house.
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lords-and-ladies arum maculatum date drawn 310513 found on the walk to the mountain garden Sally_This plant makes me smile, the old reader’s digest book says “associated with the act of making love, ‘sweethearts’, ‘silly lovers’ and ‘Adam & Eve’ are more names.”
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bishops hat epimedium perralchicum date drawn 130414 found on the walk up to the house at the start of the walk to the mountain garden Sally_I’ve a patch of this at home and it was amongst the first flowers that I painted using watercolour - such a delicate flower against such large leaves - it was lovely to discover it at Brantwood so easily as I walked up to the house, and there are more colours than yellow flowers.
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wild strawberry fragaria vesca date drawn 160715 found on the walk to the mountain garden Sally_It’s lovely to walk around my garden in July and collect a handful of wild strawberries, they are yummy. They grow anywhere. At Brantwood this was drawn sitting on the path leading to the Mountain Garden. Jane_ When I am allowed to grow my own way; When I am not forced, I bring the energy of gentle uplift. I can lighten your load, making it easier for you to be here and to be present. I bring joy. I lift a tired heart and ease the strains of the day. I am a gentle tonic. I will ease, sooth, calm, still. I will remind you of life’s sweetness even when you are weary and sad. I bring the gift and the wisdom of acceptance. Acceptance is the doorway to lasting peace. 96
Brantwood Fern Garden The Fern Garden is a maze of over 250 different types of British native ferns which thrive in the woodland climate of Brantwood. The woodland floor flourishes with low coverings of wood anemone, wood sorrel and common dog violet.
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wild carrot daucus carota date drawn 210814 found in the fern garden Sally_I saw this first down a private drive and stole some of it, the way the flower head had dried and folded into a dainty cage to hold the seeds is wonderful, I’m not nearly as interested in the fresh flower head. I was delighted to find what I thought was wild carrot at Brantwood, but later I learnt that it was himalayan parsley. On the 7th August 2015 I went looking again for this plant, just as I thought I was going to have to remove this watercolour from my collection, I found some wild carrot in full flower in the Fern Garden up by the neatly stacked hazel coppicing. Louise confirmed it was wild carrot and pointed out the central small red floret in each flowerhead. Flowers I see in hedgerows and curbsides I find at Brantwood and flowers I discover at Brantwood I find myself looking for in hedgerows and curbsides.
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wood sorrel oxalis acetosella date drawn 120515 found below the trees in the fern garden Sally_I drew this sat below the trees in the Fern Garden where the hazel is coppiced, but you can find this all over in spring, such a delicate little flower with fine purple veins. The leaves, like clover, can be seen through till autumn.
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common dog violet viola riviniana date drawn 230415 found below the trees in the fern garden Sally_These violets are among the early spring flowers. It was a calm morning sitting on the steep Fern Garden path, below the trees spring canopy, with gentle sunshine and visitors making their way past me as I drew. Sarah & Jane_the dog violet is part of one of the Medicine Garden Meldings; the Shift Group, this group is focused on spiritual development and wellbeing. It supports the spiritual journey and the emotional growth of the individual. Meldings are prepared using the plants which grow in Sarah’s garden and wild in the area, Willow water and organic alcohol – with the channeled vibrational energy of the plants. The world ‘melding’ is a Middle English word which means ‘blending’ which seemed to capture the essence of the Meldings themselves. http://www.medicinegarden.com/meldings-shift-group.php.
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wild bluebells hyacinthoides non-scriptus date drawn 020515 found below the trees in the fern garden Sally_I sat under an umbrella with this neatly arranged clump of bluebells, with wood sorrel scattered about beneath the trees on the steeply inclined rough path, somehow its always raining when I have been drawing the bluebells. I started reading ‘52 flowers that shook my world’, lent by a friend, and this quote resonated with me: "We are, of course, shifted by plants all the time: by tea leaves, hemp flowers, coffee beans, willow bark. Our bodies respond as the roots and leaves of plants and the fruits of trees enter our systems, as food or medicine. Our hearts beat when the cherry bursts into bloom and the bluebells shimmer in the woods." Charlotte Du Cann.
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wood anemone anemone nemorosa date drawn 020415 found below the trees in the fern garden Sally_I met this flower for the first time in the woods above my studio and knew that they were a must to spend time with at Brantwood. So I asked Brantwood gardener Ruth to let me know when they were coming into flower. I took a walk up through the Fern Garden, my eyes watching the woodland floor till I arrived at a handsome gathering of the flowers. You can also find them in the Hortus Inclusus Garden.
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serviceberry amelanchier canadensis date drawn 230415 found by the coppicing in the fern garden Sally_I came across this as I was climbing the path in the Fern Garden, I walked by the hazel coppice area, where twigs and branches are laid neatly in purposeful pens. Leaning over these was a gorgeous white owering bush, or small tree, it was catching the sunlight and the wind was waving it gently.
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Found in different locations all over Brantwood Brantwood has unique and beautiful mountainside gardens, set in a 250 acre wood estate with spectacular views over Consiton Water and the fells beyond. ‘Brant’ is Norse for steep, and Brantwood’s steep woods were first worked by Norse invaders in the ninth century. With a stunning diversity of flora and fauna, these ancient semi-natural woodlands comprise half the 250 acre estate. Elsewhere the estate ranges from lakeshore meadows to high, open fell.
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bog asphodel in ower narthecium ossifragum date drawn 040714 found on the Brantwood trail Sally_I encountered bog asphodel on my walk up through the moorland garden. It starts as a steep walk with rest stops to take in the view across the lake, then levels out through a boggy area where the bog asphodel looked wonderful in the afternoon sunlight. It was in amongst the common spotted heath orchids on a walk that takes you up to Craghead, where you can sit on the rock and breathe deeply while you take in the view across Coniston Water.
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bog asphodel in seed narthecium ossifragum date drawn 210913 found on the Brantwood trail Sally_I found bog asphodel in seed before I saw it in flower. I was on Penn, the fell above my studio, the orange is quite intense I thought it was a flower at first.
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nasturtium tropaeolum date drawn 300814 found in the professor's garden Sally_This is such an upbeat flower, chaotic in its growth and wonderful for salads. A friend gave me some seeds saying they were easy to grow, she was right and I enjoyed the flowers and leaves through till September. This was drawn in the Professor’s Garden, in 2014 it was growing on the higher level to the garden and in varying colours and design. This year you will find an exotic yellow nasturtium in a large tub on the restaurant terrace.
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primrose primula vulgaris date drawn 110415 found throughout Brantwood Sally_A happy ower both at Brantwood and at home. I look forward to drawing and painting them each year, sitting in the sunshine, feeling the breeze, and often hearing the wind created by bird wings as they y past me.
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ivy-leafed toad flax cymbalaria muralis date drawn 180514 found in stone walls Sally_a floaty little thing seen in many a stone wall, and in this instance in the wall by the steps up to the Brantwood restaurant from the car park. As with things newly learnt I began to see this everywhere; in the wall at the Abott Hall entrance, falling over itself in an intricate dance in my courtyard; popping up to say hello in my daughter’s yard. You will find white flowers at Brantwood too.
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dandelion taraxacum offinale date drawn 310513 found on the roadside Sally_I’ve grown up thinking, first; what fun to blow the fairies into the sky and make a wish, second; to be frustrated at the weed tendencies, third; to think them ugly. Now I think of them as lovely and rather good in a salad or tea. They do get to be abundant, the method I am using this year to cull them is to pick the flowers, either put them in a salad or dry them to make tea, any left over are composted with the vegetable peelings.
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maple acer palmatun date drawn 200514 on the maple walk Sally_This is a wonderful maple tree at Brantwood! The richness and depth of colour you feel from standing beneath these trees on a summer’s evening is beautiful, ethereal. As the leaves drop, the canopy wraps around you from the path beneath your feet to above your head.
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lesser periwinkle vinca minor date drawn 150315 found by the exit gate in the car park Sally_This starts owering very early in the year and seems to go on all summer, a few owers at a time of a gentle purple against dark shiny leaves.
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berberis berberis darwinii date drawn 040515 found at the exit gate in the car park Sally_I visited this many times before I sat down and spent some time with it, I was waiting for the owers to be in full bloom. At the beginning of May, as I approached the bush, I heard the buzzing of the bees, there were three kinds of bee that I could see, and I could feel the headiness of the nectar through the sounds of their working, seeing the ower heads drop to the ground from time to time. Each time I look at this watercolour I can still hear their preoccupation.
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fox and cubs pilosella aurantiaca date drawn 220814 & 230615 found on the harbour walk Sally_I love how this buds purple and opens to hot orange with a slightly cooler centre. It’s a small patch at Brantwood and I have delighted in the larger patches by the High Cross Inn at Broughton-in-Furness. Jane_Tuning into this flower is starting to take me on a shamanic style journey so I thought it might be helpful to narrate this: So I am experiencing a not altogether unpleasant, but nonethe-less pressured sensation in the centre of my body - sort of pushing up from my solar plexus to my heart space and I am very aware of fire energy. And what is starting to happen is that I am starting to become aware of a particular vision space - its a wide open space - a sort of meadow which is full of the fox and cubs flowers. Now I am moving though the space and a female figure is starting to appear and the figure is clearly the spirit of the flowers. And as I start to approach her, I have feelings of intense energy in my head, in my womb and in my heart space. 132
And she is speaking to me of transformation. She is saying: Come daughter of Earth it is time to change. You have laid the ground work for an elevation, a transformation of who you are. Now you must just step beyond. I am gifting you with my energy because I am an energy that helps you to take risks. To walk your own path and dance to the rhythm of your own drum - your own heart beat. I help you to establish your own space in the world. Your own family. And in the vision, this woman is now placing her hands on my body and I am feeling all the cells of my body vibrating. There is a sense of power - awakening I guess. And the surges of energies are starting to settle and I am feeling a new sort of groundedness. The vision is starting to fade and I am feeling more like myself again. More awake. But everything is more vibrant and I feel more connected into this part of the garden where I am. Everything is brighter. It feels a bit as if I have been hollowed out somehow - there is still sensation in my abdomen. - Wow! Quite a ower!
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Brantwood Hortus Inclusus Garden The Hortus Inclusus is an enclosed garden of British native herbs, laid out in the form of a medieval manuscript. It explores the uses of over 200 herbs by habitat according to medicinal, culinary, cosmetic and aesthetic uses. A place where many of the plants are constrained in pots in order to be able to keep them from overlapping and therefore be able to study them more closely. Jane tells me that the garden ďŹ nds this amusing, this attempt at control, while Dinah felt quite uncomfortable in there and was happy to leave. Ruth has mentioned that some of the plants have not faired well in their sunken pots. I have spent a lot of time here, and keep coming back, particularly as many of the plant names can be seen on small metal markers. This garden sits alongside the hay-meadow.
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purple loosestrife lythrum salicaria date drawn 100814 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_Yellow loosestrife, purple loosestrife, the flowers are so different from each other, this one is like a brighter, larger version of woundwort, with towers of little purple flowers. I can name and recognise so many more wild flowers today than I could two years ago!
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ragwort senecio jacobaea date drawn 210814 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_Ragwort is pulled out by the root when it appears in the hay-meadow because of the cattle that graze there. It’s pulled from most places, but the Hortus Inclusus Garden is interested in all plants, and this one has the lovely cinnabar moth that comes from the yellow and blacked stripped caterpillars that feed on the leaves. Last summer when I ďŹ rst saw the caterpillars on this plant, I was astounded by how much they can consume in a short space of time. I have yet to see the moth.
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monkshood aconitum napellus date drawn 280515 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_Medicine Garden Sarah pointed this one out to me, recognising the leaves at an early stage of its growth, she described the ower and told me of their poisonous nature, that gardeners need to wear gloves while working with them. I went several times before it was out in a way that I wanted to draw it. It’s quite imposing positioned as it is at the top of the Hortus Inclusus.
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bugle ajuga reptans date drawn 110515 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_Bugle is in the controlled Hortus Inclusus Garden, but it also has been allowed to grow wildly there too, bees love them.
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st john’s wort hypericum perforatum date drawn 020814 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_St John’s Wort is lovely the way the red buds develop and open into little yellow stars. It’s confusing too as it comes in many sizes from the large Tutsan to the fine Slender St John’s Wort. Sarah_There are many varieties of this herb, the perforatum has tiny amounts of a red oil in it's petals and upper leaves, if these parts of the plant are put into sunflower oil and placed in direct sunlight for 6-8 weeks an iridescent red oil is produced which is powerfully anti-inflammatory; because it is a fixed oil it doesn't need diluting and can be applied directly to painful joints and tendons, it may alleviate pain sufficiently to replace painkillers in a person's diet. The sunshine herb, widely known as being useful in treating mild to moderate depression, especially SAD. Also useful for evening out the mood swings that may occur during menopause, I'm sure that it has saved lives. On a more cautionary note - take care in sunlight when taking st john's wort because it may make you photo sensitive and bring you out in a rash.
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viper’s bugloss echium vulgare date drawn 230515 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_This plant jumped out at me, I had been watching the leaf shape as it grew, not knowing what it was. Jane and I spent time with it still not knowing, then of course there is the pronunciation of the name that made me smile; bug-loss or bu-gloss. There is so much going on with this flower and some similarities in construction to phacelia. Jane_What is really clear about this flower is that, in shamanic terms, it acts as a sort of bridge to the upper world which is a kind of transcendent space - beyond the everyday. So what is happening, as I sit with the energy of this flower, is that I am being taken off on a journey again. I am experiencing the sensation of being lifted up and out of my body and I have intense sensations in my third eye and my heart space. There is a staircase and I am climbing the staircase in the vision and I am emerging into a sort of a temple - sacred space. Its similar colours to the flowers - it’s beautiful. This time I am here to meet with my soul. My soul is giving me some images of what is coming in the future - she is just confirming one or two things I was sort of
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aware of already. There is a sense of joy and upliftedness. My soul is giving me a choice - there is a safer/easier way forward and a more challenging way. And I know that if I take the more challenging way my sense of connectedness to all things will deepen so its a bit of a no-brainer really! So now I’m going through the doorway and there is a sense of climbing steps going upwards again and I’m starting to leave my soul’s energy behind and so I’m starting to leave behind what is mine and starting to enter what transcends what is mine. The edges of myself are starting to dissolve. It is very brightlike - It feels like I’m going back in time. Ok... this is the beginning of the earth. I’m resting in the energy of the earth at her beginning and she is starting to form... it’s amazing. I’m starting to see the genesis of things. The pattenings. I’m now moving forward very quickly and I am in the energy that becomes plants. And I’m kind of feeling that experience of being plants... and how they are all coming from one origin and how they are one consciousness within it - now that awareness has sort of exploded away... and I’m starting to - it’s hard to explain it - I’m feeling how I am the plant space and at my edges are all the forms that plants take... everything - absolutely everything. Plants I could see if I opened my eyes and plants that are no longer in physical existence and plants that are yet to be in physical
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existence... and plants that are on the other side of the world and I could move into any of those spaces if I wanted to but I am choosing to stay within the middle - the sort of everything & nothing space and I can feel the weight of the unhelpful relationship mankind has with plants - the pesticides and that ... thats it -it’s the interference - man’s interference... the control. And I can feel why I am getting this vision - there is some healing I need to offer here - so I’m sort of plugging into this control energy and running light through it. And as I do that there is a sense of the symbiotic relationship between me and the plants and I am really feeling this teaching about control and how control is the problem and that the earth is sick and that’s why people are sick because we cannot allow what is. I’m starting to fall down from this space now and the vision is starting to fade.
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yarrow achillea millefolium date drawn 280814 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_Over time I have passed this flower without actually seeing it because the flower-head resembles a large family of this type of structure. I was in the Hortus Inclusus Garden with my pencils and paper and it was time to draw the yarrow - as I spent time with the plant and studied the soft fluffy leaves and the formation of the florets I engaged more with its individuality. Sarah_As a folk remedy it is often used to staunch bleeding - bleeding to the third level, arterial bleeding. Using this idea and a Maria Treben's case history I encouraged a patient with fibroids who suffered from painful and heavy periods to bathe in yarrow tea, using the bath as the tea cup; after only a few baths her symptoms were much reduced and life became manageable again.
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lady’s mantle alchemilla vulgaris date drawn 060613 found in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_It grows relentlessly in my garden, I spend a lot of time pulling it out, but in the Hortus Inclusus it’s controlled and I love the way the leaves hold the dew and rain. Jane_”I hold the wisdom of self-acceptance. I bring teachings of going with what is – flowing with what is. I can make my home anywhere because I am not constrained. Turn to me when you are doubting. Turn to me when you doubt your right to be the way you are. Turn to me when you are holding tension in your body because you are straining against what is. I will help your body to relax, Be still, Allow. I will help you to come to terms with all that you are; that which you judge good and that which you judge lacking. I have particular affinity for reproduction. What could be more allowing of life than the process of birthing life anew? If you seek to allow what is to flow through you then I am the companion you need. 154
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jacob’s ladder polemonium caeruleum date drawn 030615 found on the trellis walk and in the hortus inclusus garden Sally_the leaves first caught my attention because they are so distinctive, their tall slender shape carrying these great heads of flowers.
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bistort or easter ledges persicaria bistorta date drawn 280515 found in the hortus inclusus Sally_This is an abundant curbside plant, it was tantalising to drive past for many weeks during 2014, having to wait till spring 2015 before I could spend some time with it in the Hortus Inclusus Garden. Sarah_Powerful astringent, very high in vitamin C. Before supermarkets were invented early spring was known as the 'hungry gap' a time when stores of food had either run out or they were beginning to sprout ready for growing. This time of year also coincides with Lent a time when certain foods are 'given up'/not eaten anyway - in celebration of the end of Lent and the arrival of Easter, Easter Ledge pudding was made, mainly in the north Lakes and Yorkshire. A grain, barley or wheat was mixed with an onion, Easter ledge leaves, dandelion leaves, gooseberry leaves, blackcurrant leaves and clovers plus an egg and then wrapped in a cloth and boiled. A much needed dose of Vitamin C was provided by this pudding.
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Jane_”You made a mistake when you reduced us to our function. You made a mistake when you determined that some of us were good to eat; that some of us were good as medicine and some of us were good to look at. You made a mistake when you reduced us to our function. We all have our part to play in creating wholeness. We all serve. And just because you do not understand our deeper nature and its function, it doesn’t mean we do not have one. All things have their correct place. It is only when this is ignored that things become out of balance. This is the great challenge that Earth faces. All is out of balance. This great art of categorisation is just an excuse to limit what is. Be careful that in your quest for knowledge that you do not lose sight of the bigger picture. It is not enough to know our constituents – instead seek to know our wisdom. Seek to understand the whole – be careful that your quest for understanding does not blind you to your own nature and to the nature of all things. Thought can restrict and limit – only wonder opens the heart and the mind to truth. In your own gardens, away from this place, consider the principle of balance. Garden to create balance. Garden more from instinct and intuition and less for specific impact. The garden that you create is a reflection of your own connectedness with yourself. Through your connectedness with yourself, you come to know all things.
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fumitory fumaria oďŹƒcinalis date drawn 030615 found in the hortus inclusus Sally_This is at the gate of the Hortus Inclusus Garden, as you open and close the gate it catches, and looks delicate enough to get squashed or crushed, but somehow manages to survive this.
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dropwort filipendula vulgaris date drawn 230615 found in the hortus inclusus Sally_Such pretty ‘thin stems, and buds like little cream bubbles washed with red’ (SarahRaven), gorgeous in sunshine.
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welsh poppy meconopsis cambrica date drawn 070515 found in the hortus inclusus Sally_So fragile are the petals that they can blow away in a strong wind, the stems bend under the heavy lakeland rains, but it will grow in amusing places such as walls and cobbled courtyards, we have a clump at home that lives just where the gate opens fully so that when the gate is closed it looks like a tiny island. This was drawn in the Hortus Inclusus Garden.
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water avens geum rivale date drawn 030615 found in the hortus inclusus garden and on the trellis walk Sally_I caught it out of the corner of my eye as I was walking down the Corney Fell road where I live, something dierent and new to me, a subtle bit of orange. I thought there must be some at Brantwood, I found some on the Trellis Walk and at the very bottom of the Hortus Inclusus Garden, possibly reseeding itself there.
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oxslip primula elatior date drawn 150415 found in the hortus inclusus garden on the trellis walk and the high walk Sally_I’ve seen oxslip on the High Walk, created by Ruskin’s cousin, Joan Severn, as well as in the Hortus Inclusus and Trellis Walk. I sat down to draw it in the Hortus Inclusus Garden on one of those lovely days when the sounds of spring are emerging.
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foxglove digitalis purpuria date drawn 280615 found in the hortus inclusus Sally_This is a flower we carry from childhood, we’ve always known the name. They are contained in the Hortus Inclusus Garden and wild everywhere else, this year, 2015, they are in abundance in my own garden and I love them. They stand taller than I do as I walk among them. Jane_”My wisdom, my energy, is easy to discern. For if there is one thing you know about plants, you know that the foxglove is poisonous. I am a plant of pause, of endings and beginnings. When you see the foxglove, you stop, recognise, pause for a moment. I create a space, a break, an ending. I allow you to stop, rethink, reconsider and move on. Resting in the flow of life is not a case of being passive; it is an act of being deeply engaged. Part of this engagement is that act of review. Take time to consider why you have made the choices you have. Take time to consider whether things best serve you. Allow yourself the chance to let go. It is time for a journey. Come with me... Allow my energy more deeply into your body. Do 172
not be afraid. In this form, I will simply release all that no longer serves you; all that is stagnant from your body, from your heart. Allow me, allow this connection with me. Allow yourself to journey back to a place where you made a choice that was ill-advised. Allow yourself to see this moment as if from the outside. Allow yourself to witness the fears that led you to this decision... ....and now let them go. Give my energy permission to eradicate from the cells of your body, these fears. Allow yourself to be freed from this patterning. You no longer need this. It is safe for you to let this die. Let it die. And as this is released be aware of how a whole page of your life’s story is likewise being released. Allow yourself to be liberated from your story. Now be aware of the rush of energy through your system as you begin to flow once more. Allow the flowing. Allow what was once cut off from you to flow freely through you. This is what it means to flow.
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Brantwood Trellis Walk The Trellis Walk, with its ďŹ ne herbaceous planting, traces the historical signiďŹ cance of plants in British culture, from medieval times, via William Morris and the Victorians, to the present day. Here are just a few of them.
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lungwort pulmonaria oďŹƒcinalis date drawn 020415 found at the top gate on the trellis walk Sally_I encountered the lungwort just inside the Trellis Walk gate, the lovely mix of pink and blue owers on the same plant. Brantwood gardener Dave Charles named it for me. There seems to be no rhyme to whether the ower colour is pink or blue, the buds grow pink and open blue, sometimes staying pink!. The spotted leaves are fun too.
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solomon’s-seal polygonatum multiflorum date drawn 030615 found on the trellis walk Sally_We had some elegant solomon seal in our garden in London. Sarah’s anecdote on this plant it wonderful. Sarah_Solomon's seal has 'Intelligence to set bones.' Matthew Wood I came across this plant three years ago during a trip to America. Over breakfast with herbalists on their herb farm I found myself describing demonstrating to my children how to slide on a frozen tarn on Great Stickle only to land with great force on my coccyx, this had happened 15 years before, but my coccyx was becoming very painful. They immediately recommended taking solomon's seal root tincture - I have had little discomfort since. Their experience with this herb was with a neighbours dog that was hit by a car and had it's jaw dislocated, a passenger was needed to hold the dog on the way to the vet's and as this passenger worked at the herb farm he took a handful of Solomon's seal root with him and held it to the dogs jaw; after travelling about 5 miles they turned round and came back because the dog's jaw had relined itself and the dog was bruised but otherwise fine. 178
drumstick primrose primula denticulata date drawn 150415 found on the trellis walk Sally_There was very little going on around this flower when I found it in April, it grows on a straight stem up into a ball and is loved by bees. Walking down the Trellis Walk three months later you’d wonder that it could survive with the abundance of plants and flowers that were there.
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comfrey symphytum oďŹƒcinalis date drawn 050613 found on the trellis walk Sally_This one catches me looking for it in hedgerows, there’s a great patch of it by a BT box at Duddon Bridge. The comfrey plant on the Trellis Walk appears very stylish to me.
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honeywort cerinthe purpurascens date drawn 120515 found on the trellis walk and the professor's garden Sally_I ďŹ rst encountered this in the Professor’s Garden then on the Trellis Walk, I love the way the colour wash goes from green to purple on what look like leaves all the way to the bud.
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tansy-leaved phacelia phacelia tanacetifolia date drawn 230615 found on the trellis walk Sally_The fluffiness of this flower was what I saw first, soft fur with scattered delicate little mauve flowers. Jane_”I reward the energy of contemplation. As I draw you into me, I draw you into yourself. I contain the mystery of life, the wonder of it. As you consider the seeming contrasts that lie within me, you will come to accept that you too are a creation of seeming contrasts. So often do you expect yourselves to make sense; expect yourselves to be logical; expect a wholeness that is linear, when in fact your wholeness is as contradictory as mine. The secret to peace is to widen your expectations of your Self to accept that you are incongruent in your congruence. That you are imperfect, perfection. That you are multiplicitious in your wholeness – you are as I am. My energy simplifies and purifies. If you rest a while with me you will find a greater sense of peace and acceptance because you will find it easier to let go of your own expectations of your Self. Breathe, breathe, be free. 186
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hosta hosta date drawn 110515 found on the trellis walk Sally_This is a cultivated plant. The hosta jumped out at me at this stage of its growth, a couple of weeks before the leaves extend and fall open it stands as protruding rods in the ground with lime green melting into purple.
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mountain cornflower centaurea montana date drawn 030615 found on the trellis walk Sally_Light and delicate, it’s the blue of the flower that strikes me first, then the spiky petals that remind me of Ragged Robin.
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great burnet sanguisorba officinalis date drawn 020714 found on the trellis walk Sally_Walk down the Trellis Walk almost to the bottom and great burnet falls in your path after the rains or stands tall in the sunshine. It is one of my hedgerow distractions too, several times I’ve spotted this plant but been unable to stop the car with narrow lanes and no layby. On the morning of the dawn scything in 2014 at 5.30am I got my chance to spend half an hour with it. the weighty purple heads seem too heavy for the fine stems which at this stage of its growth were bending with their weight.
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elephant ears Bergenia cordifolia date drawn 250315 found on the trellis walk Sally_This is a cultivated ower. I love it as another example of meeting a ower at Brantwood and then recognising it elsewhere.
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field scabious knautia arvensis date drawn 200714 found on the trellis walk Sally_Scabious is a gorgeous plant and ever since I first was on the look out for Devil’s Bit Scabious the Field Scabious has been presenting itself to me. The first time I saw it was while driving, my friend spotting it curbside in the windy roads between Newby Bridge and Bowland Bridge, I stopped the car, reversed, got out, and plucked a few of the flowers.
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pink lungwort pulmonaria rubra date drawn 150415 found on by the bottom gate on the trellis walk Sally_This lungwort was near the Harbour Walk gate as you alight from the steamer. All the owers had yet to blossom and they were predominantly pink. I wondered if they got less sunlight from their position than the lungwort I had painted over a week before that was in full bloom and by the gate at the top of the Trellis Walk (page 176). I lay on the path so as to draw at the same level as the owers. Ruth told me later that this is a pink variety; rubra.
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Flower Index 130 berberis 50 bird's foot trefoil 94 bishop’s hat 158 bistort 82 blue anenome 114 bog asphodel 144 bugle 20 bush vetch 48 buttercup 84 campion, alpine 44 campion, red 68 cardamine 22 catsear 24 clover, red 24 clover, white 182 comfrey 104 common dog violet 52 common spotted orchid 56 cukcoo flower
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124 164 194 38 132 172 162 192 54 30 76 78 184 86 188 122 156 18 154 40
dandelion dropwort elephant ears eyebright fox and cubs foxglove fumitory great burnet green alkanet harebell hellebore, cream hellebore, red honeywort hoop petticoat daffodil hosta ivy-leaved toad flax jacob's ladder knapweed lady's mantle lesser hop trefoil
36 92 176 198 126 142 190 118 28 170 128 186 180 120 138 140 32 66 196 42
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lesser stitchwort lords and ladies lungwort, official lungwort, pink maple monkshood mountain cornflower nasturtium oxeye daisy oxslip perriwinkle phacelia primrose, drumstick primrose, official purple loosestrife ragwort ribwort plantain scabious, devil's bit scabious, field selfheal
110 90 178 88 46 72 46 146 74 26 148 168 166 106 100 96 108 102 152 58
serviceberry snake's head solomon seal speedwell, brooklime speedwell, germander speedwell, hairy speedwell, slender st john's wort thrift tormentil viper’s bugloss water avens welsh poppy wild bluebells wild carrot wild strawberry wood anemone wood sorrel yarrow yellow rattle
Thank yous Thank you Brantwood; to Ruth Charles for answering all my questions and digging up a forkful of the hay-meadow for me to take home to my studio; to Sally Beamish for your example, it gave me courage to follow my natural responses to the flowers. Thank you to Rachel Litten for inviting me to submit a proposal for an exhibition of flower watercolours. Thank you to Helen Wharton, Julie Mortram, Maureen, Steve, John and Howard Hull. Thank you to Jane and Sarah for your insights and the gentleness of discoveries in well-being. Thank you to Maggie Norton who inspired me to start painting watercolours of wildflowers that began this journey. Thank you to my arty friends; Dinah Brown, Ann Marie Foster and Caroline Munday for the days out, the discussions, the inspiration and the laughter. To see more of my work; visit www.sallybamber.com Thank you
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