For our March first Friday walk, Zoe and I chose to visit The Newt in Somerset – last Thursday. Here are some of the photos I took on that mainly bright, but chilly, Spring day.
We bought a coffee and took it into the greenhouse. The billionaire owner of The Newt is South African, and the Bird of Paradise is the national flower of his country.
I’ve not been able to identify this flower. Two ‘found its’ turned out to have totally dissimilar leaves. Suggestions would be welcome.
We set off on the ten-minute walk to the new Four Seasons garden.
It has not yet been inaugurated, and indeed there was one section we could not visit because of repair work going on. (Replacement of large trees which had not taken – such expense!)
You don’t go far in The Newt without finding somewhere to sit.
We still had plenty of time and continued walking.
Indeed, we sat at a high point to enjoy the sun and the view westwards.
The pigeons and doves had descended from the high perch they had chosen last time I was at The Newt, about six weeks previously.
We stopped at The Story of Gardening for a cuppa, and then continued via the edge of the area where deer are sometimes to be seen. I commented that it was a shame we hadn’t seen any this time. Zoe suggested I look backwards over my left shoulder. I’d never them in that spot before.
Zoe is to do a weekend course on lichen in a couple of months’ time, after which she will no doubt be able to name this one, not just give its general type: crustose, I think she said.
Given that snowdrops round here have been over for a while now, it was surprising to see some still out in this wooded area – or perhaps not, given that The Newt is pretty elevated and quite windy at times.
As we left via the Threshing Barn, we saw again the temporary decoration which had greeted us.
Its construction appears in the current ‘Newt Minute‘.
Musiewild's blog 
Have you discarded an abutilon as your mystery flower?
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In a separate email, my French correspondent, Christine, (Anonymous below, for some reason commenters’ names don’t’ always come through these days) suggests the plant may be Abutilon Theophrasti, Velvetleaf, native to China. See also my comment below which seems to have been posted separately, and not as reply to your comment.
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It was one of my two, but the leaves didn’t seem right. Perhaps there are different leaves for different varieties. It was very pretty, whatever it’s name. (‘A rose would smell as sweet’, and all that.)
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J’ai aussi pensé à un abutilon, mais c’est vrai que les feuilles ne collent pas.
Merci pour le poème, que j’ai recopié.
Banc bien rond, reflets, fleurs, ambiance donnent très envie de s’attarder.
Christine
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But only when the sun was out…
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A splendid record of your visit. It is an amazing place to visit, and there always seems to be work going on to make it even more attractive.
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Yes, I wonder what they’ll be up to next!
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