Dear Readers, it was such a beautiful afternoon on Thursday that I decided to take a walk in St James’s Park, en route to the Linnean Society in Burlington House. This park holds a host of memories for me – Mum used to work at a solicitor’s office off Jermyn Street, so we would sometimes meet up at lunchtime and sit on a bench. Even earlier than this, I remember visiting as a child, and seeing the ‘bird man’, who would stand on the bridge in the park and ‘summon’ literally hundreds of sparrows. And once, I sat and watch a starling murmuration over the island in the middle of the lake. These days, you’re hard-pushed to spot a sparrow, and the starlings have been moved on to goodness knows where. However, the squirrels still run up to you with a hopeful expression, and there are plenty of mallards and coots and moorhens. But where are the famous pelicans?

Gargi the pelican

Well, due to avian flu five of the six pelicans are living in an enclosure on Duck Island in the middle of the lake, but Gargi has decided that she likes being free more than she likes her companions, so she is hanging out with the ducks and coots. What extraordinary creatures pelicans are! They are at the upper limit of size for flying birds – the bigger a bird is, the larger their wings and flight muscles need to be, and the more the bird weighs, which makes taking off difficult. But pelicans can be very acrobatic in flight – I watched brown pelicans off the coast of California diving into the Pacific like arrows, and very impressive it was too.

Gargi has an interesting history. She was found in a garden in Southend in 1996, and appears to have originally been a wild bird who got lost on migration, probably from the south of France. She was brought to the park to recover, and has lived there ever since.

The pelicans are very adaptable creatures, and are clearly opportunists: although in normal times the group of six pelicans is fed every day at 2.30, one of them decided to also take a trip to London Zoo, in time to scoop up the fish that were being fed to the penguins. You’ll often also see the pelicans standing on the benches next to someone who is feeding the geese, which is a rather anxiety-provoking experience – close up, these are very large birds. They also scoop up and eat the occasional pigeon, much to the horror of passersby.

St James’s Park is also home to some truly magnificent London Plane trees…

and has in recent years put in a reed bed, which looked spectacular in the late afternoon sunlight.

So, a really lovely walk that reminded me why I love my city so much – there are few places that have so much green space bang smack in the middle of town, and it was good to see so many people relaxing and enjoying themselves, especially against the backdrop of what sometimes feels like a world gone mad.

Dear Readers, just a quick one today – it’s a beautiful sunny spring day, and I fancy getting out into the garden and just sitting on my bench with a good book. But first up, I have finally gotten around to planting up my window boxes – I’m in a saxifrage/Alpine frame of mind, and hopefully these little guys will be able to survive being blasted with sunshine on the south-facing side of the house.

And in the back garden, the flowering currant is looking particularly splendid at the moment..

The theme for the garden is largely pink, blue and white, though I did see some pot marigolds that were almost irresistible yesterday. Sadly my forget-me-nots have gone, but I shall be scattering some more seed soon. And I still have to plant up my dahlias, which, as you may remember, are largely in shades of orange. So much for a theme! People will have to wear sunglasses.

Much as I do with clothes, I’m a terrible magpie when it comes to plants –  I spot something that I like, and then something else that I like, without giving much consideration to whether the items actually complement one another. Still, it makes life more interesting, and although bees aren’t colour-blind, I’m sure they can pick the blue and pink flowers, leaving the orange and yellow ones to the hoverflies. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Photo by By مانفی – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42817936

Dear Readers, I hadn’t come across Chinese-American poet Chen Chen before, but I love his work – it reminds me of another favourite poet, Mark Doty, who also tells stories about relationships, and what it’s like to be gay, amongst so many other things. See what you think. You can read more of his work here.

Poem in Noisy Mouthfuls

By Chen Chen

Can’t stop eating you, movie-style extra butter microwave popcorn.
Can’t stop watching you, rented movie about an immigrant family
from Lebanon. Can’t help but weep, seeing the family wave

goodbye to relatives in the Beirut airport—tear salt mixing with
popcorn salt. Can’t hide my mess, myself from the friend beside me.
Can’t answer his question, Does it remind you of your family, leaving China?

I want to say, No, it’s completely different, which in many ways it is, but really
I’m remembering what a writer friend once said to me, All you write about
is being gay or Chinese—how I can’t get over that, & wonder if it’s true,

if everything I write is in some way an immigrant narrative or another
coming out story. I recall a recent poem, featuring fishmongers in Seattle,
& that makes me happy—clearly that one isn’t about being gay or Chinese.

But then I remember a significant number of Chinese immigrants
live in Seattle & how I found several of the Pike Place fishmongers
attractive when I visited, so I guess that poem’s about being gay

& Chinese, too. So I say to my friend, I’m not sure, & keep eating
the popcorn. Thank god we chose the giant “family size” bag. Can’t stop
the greasy handfuls, noisy mouthfuls. Can’t eat popcorn quietly.

Later, during my friend’s smoke break, still can’t come up with a worthy
response to his radical queer critique of homonormativity, of monogamy,
domesticity, front lawn glory. These middle-class gays picking out

garden gnomes, ignoring all the anti-racist work of decolonization
that still needs to be done—don’t you think they’re lame? I say, Yeah, for sure,
but think, marriage, house, 1 kid, 2 cats—how long have I wanted that?

Could I give that up in the name of being a real queer? Probably can’t.
& it’s like another bad habit I can’t give up. Eating junk, can’t. Procrastinating,
can’t. Picking scabs, can’t. Being friends with people who challenge

my beliefs & life plans, can’t. Reading & believing in Ayn Rand, though?
Can, Brief phase as a Christian because I liked the cross as an accessory? Can.
WWJD? Can. White heterosexist patriarchy? Can. America . . . can’t.

Can’t help but think, when we get back to the movie, how it was my father’s
decision to move here, not my mother’s, just like the parents on screen.
Can’t stop replaying my mother’s walk onto the plane, carrying me,

though I was getting too old for it, holding me, my face pressed into her
hair, her neck, as she cried, quietly—can’t stop returning to this scene of leaving,
can’t stop pausing the scene, thinking I’ve left something out again,

something else my mother told me. Like my grandmother at the airport,
how she saw my small body so tied to my mother’s body, & still she doubted,
she had to say, You better not lose him. & my mother kept that promise

till she couldn’t, she lost me, in the new country, but doesn’t
that happen to all parents & their children, one way or another,
& don’t we need to get lost? Lost, dizzy, stubbly, warm, stumbling,

whoa—that’s what it felt like, 17, kissing a boy for the first time.
Can’t forget it. Can’t forget when my mother found out & said,
This would never have happened if we hadn’t come to this country.

But it would’ve happened, every bit as dizzy, lost, back in China.
It didn’t happen because of America, dirty Americans. It was me,
my need. My father said, You have to change, but I couldn’t, can’t

give you up, boys & heat, scruff & sweet. Can’t get over you. Trying to get
over what my writer friend said, All you write about is being gay or Chinese.
Wish I had thought to say to him, All you write about is being white

or an asshole. Wish I had said, No, I already write about everything—
& everything is salt, noise, struggle, hair,
carrying, kisses, leaving, myth, popcorn,

mothers, bad habits, questions.

Dear Readers, I’m seeing an increasing number of households choosing Photinia as their hedge, and I can see why – at its best, it’s a lovely combination of shiny red leaves, white flowers and, later in the year, some rather delicious bluish berries.  The one above, on  Twyford Avenue here in  East Finchley, is a truly splendid example, but the one below is also very fine, and is on our street. However, my digging about on the interwebs has revealed that the plant is very hungry for magnesium – this can easily be leached out during periods of heavy rainfall or drought. So the author of the blog referenced above suggests that, in addition to a normal fertiliser, it’s worth putting a tablespoonful of Epsom salts into a gallon of water once a year. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency show up as loss of lower leaves (giving the plant a leggy appearance), and also as little purple spots on the leaves. So now we know!

And while trawling through the Open University Library to see if Photinia has cropped up anywhere else, I’ve discovered that an extract from the plant’s leaves shows promise as an environmentally-friendly anti-corrosion paint, which is great news as most anti-corrosion chemicals are toxic. It just goes to show that plants are endlessly fascinating and worth paying attention to!

Now, let’s zip back in time to my original blogpost from 2022.

Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’

Dear Readers, in the spring time it’s so easy to get carried away by the bulbs and the blossom that I fail to notice the new growth on some of the shrubs and trees around me. And so, on a bright but cold day, I was suddenly brought up short by the shiny, perfect crimson growth on this Photinia. The ‘Red Robin’ variant is the one most often seen, but my RHS magazine this week points out a couple of other varieties too.

This one is known as ‘Pink Marble’ or ‘Cassini’ – the bright red leaves are streaked with vivid pink, turning to white as the leaves mature.

Photinia ‘Pink Marble’ from https://emeraldplants.co.uk/product/photinia-pink-marble/

And this one is known as ‘Crunchy’ – the leaves are serrated and emerge copper-brown, turning to chestnut and then green. This is derived from a different Photinia species from the usual Photinia x fraseri cross – Photinia serratifolia is otherwise known as the Chinese or Taiwanese Hawthorn, and has those very spiky, rather striking leaves.

Photinia serratifolia ‘Crunchy’ from https://www.norfolkqualityplants.co.uk/photinia-serratifolia-crunchy-x-3-litre-2989-p.asp

Photinias are members of the rose family, and their name derives from the Greek for ‘shiny’. The wild plant comes from the warm, temperate parts of Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan, and south to India and Thailand. There are about 60 species of Photinias, all of them shrubs or small trees. In addition to their very attractive spring foliage, a happy Photinia will reward the gardener with a mass of white flowers in the summer, followed by berries which are very popular with thrushes, starlings and waxwings, and which may stay on the plant right through the winter (hence the alternative name ‘Christmas Berry’).

A Photinia in full flower (Public Domain)

The leaves of some species contain cyanide, but this doesn’t stop them being munched upon by the caterpillars of the Common Emerald, Feathered Thorn and Setaceous Hebrew Character moths. This last moth is so named because it was thought that it had the Hebrew Character ‘Nun’ on its wings( נ). I note that some species of Photinia are mentioned as herbal remedies, for everything from worms to piles, but I must confess that I find the cyanide thing a bit disconcerting. I note that at least one website also mentions that the plant is considered to be ‘excessively aphrodisiac’, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Common Emerald (Hemithea aestivaria) (Photo One)

Feathered Thorn (Colotois pennaria) (Photo Two)

Setaceous Hebrew Character (Photo Three)

In his book ‘London’s Street Trees’, Paul Wood mentions that Photinia, though normally seen as shrubs, are becoming more popular as small street trees, and indeed I found some when I was doing my Archway Street Tree Walk back in 2017. I think they make rather pleasant additions to the landscape, and no doubt the birds will be delighted.

Photinia x fraseri ‘Red Robin’

I imagine the autumn colour will be quite something as well.

And now readers, a poem. I thought that finding a poem that specifically mentioned Photinia would be something of a struggle, but I had reckoned without the Society of Classical Poets. They are on a mission to preserve the attributes of metre and rhyme in poetry and while I recognise that poets are a varied lot, and that finding a definition of poetry that works for everyone is almost impossible, I applaud their zest and enthusiasm. I rather like a poem that rhymes and has that satisfying sense of rhythm – such poems seem to stay in the head for longer, and are certainly easier to learn. And so here is my Photinia-related poem by David Watt, a poet from Canberra, Australia. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Hedge Theory by David Watt

The hedge plants are trimmed by a gardener with shears
As they have been, like clockwork, for twenty-five years.
Yet they push out new shoots in continuing hope
Of extending their reach through the fence on the slope;

Protruding through uprights, with glossy new tips,
Their ruby leaves follow, like sensuous lips;
Curved in the middle and quivering so
From the gentlest of breeze, as it moves down the row.

When the gardener arrives, I expect the hedge moans:
“Can’t you see that we’re covering ironwork bones?
Softening edges gives purpose for hedges,
And Nature gives pleasure wherever her edge is.

“Borders are fitting for nations and states,
The banks of a river, or dinnerware plates;
But not for Photinia branches and stems,
Or sweet-smelling flowers in white diadems.

“The feature we share, let us not be mistaken,
Is to never give up though our dreams are forsaken—
When time and again every effort is met
By failure to further our reach past regret.
In fact, we have assets that few would suspect:
An underground network, and time to reflect

“On theory developed from close observation,
A lifetime of fieldwork, and growing frustration;
Which holds that our gardener grows brittle with age,
And little by little, he’s reaching the stage
Where lifting a cutter may shatter a limb—
Soon he will discover the joke is on him!”

Photo Credits

Photo One by By Lamiot – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4352407

Photo Two by By Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17370251

Photo Three By Please report references to olei@despammed.com. – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1186278

Dear Readers, today I was at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust site in Barnes, south-west London, with my friend P and her three-month old baby boy. It’s such a joy to have a baby in my life again – the last time was when P herself was a baby, and that’s (ahem) over thirty years ago. The baby settles when his mum is carrying him in a sling and walking, so today we did 14,000 steps – not bad for someone with peripheral neuropathy and a cane. And we saw some splendid wildfowl, like the collection in the photo above – there are fulvous whistling duck (bottom left) and ruddy-headed geese in the middle.

This  little guy is a white-headed duck, and he was displaying by whistling and raising that little spiky tail.

And look! Some white storks. These are being re-introduced in several locations in the UK, including the Knepp estate and, apparently, Enfield, which is becoming something of a London rewilding hotspot, what with beavers arriving too.

This wild heron was being intermittently bombarded by a pair of very irate black-headed gulls, and very entertaining it was too, for us onlookers at least, though the heron was less than impressed.

P spotted these knobbly roots, and I do believe that they’re the ‘breathing roots’ of the Swamp Cypress (one of my favourite trees) – the trees were planted along the edge of one of the ponds, and the roots protrude above the surface of the earth. They are known as ‘knees’, and it used to be thought that they helped with oxygen exchange in wet conditions. Actually, scientists discovered that even if the knees are cut off, there is no decrease in oxygen, so the current theory is that these roots help to stabilise the tree in soggy conditions. Whatever the reason, they are remarkable structures.

Bark of swamp cypress

And then it was time to head home and put my feet up. But as I left East Finchley Station, I noticed that the gnarly old tree next to the coffee stand was absolutely covered in catkins.

I think this is a hornbeam (not surprising as there’s a hornbeam and oak forest on the other side of the road), but I had  never noticed it  before, caged in as it is. It is really glorious this year, and well worth a look if you’re hurrying past en route to the station. Just proves you don’t have to do 14,000 steps to see something impressive!

Brimstone butterfly in flight (Photo By Charles J. Sharp – Own work, from Sharp Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38298003)

A series following the 72 British mini-seasons of Nature’s Calendar by Kiera Chapman, Lulah Ellender, Rowan Jaines and Rebecca Warren. 

Dear Readers, my response to the title of this piece is ‘not around here they ain’t’ – today is cold, windy and grey, with a speckling of raindrops, and I imagine that any self-respecting butterfly is hiding away in a crevice somewhere. But on milder, calmer days you may well spot a Brimstone butterfly scurrying along – Rebecca Warren describes the males as having a ‘wind-tossed sweet-wrapper’ appearance, and I couldn’t put it better myself! The females are not as brightly coloured, and both sexes disappear when they land and close their wings, so closely do they resemble a leaf.

Brimstone at rest (Photo from https://s3.animalia.bio/animals/photos/full/original/2560pxgonepteryx-rhamni-female-04-hs.webp)

Brimstones have very long tongues, which means that they can take advantage of the long corollas of primroses (which most other insects cannot). This is one reason why Brimstones emerge from hibernation so early, and why timing is everything – if there is nothing to feed on, the butterfly will die. Later, the insects will seek out buckthorn or alder buckthorn to lay their eggs on.

Orange tip butterfly at rest (Photo by Sarah Perkins/RES)

Brimstones aren’t the only ‘early flyers’ – Orange Tip butterflies can also be around on mild days in early spring. They don’t hibernate overwinter as an adult butterfly, but appear from their chrysalises, timing their emergence to the flowering of Garlic Mustard and Lady’s Smock. When the females land on a plant they can tell, via sensors on their feet, whether another female has already been there and laid a single tiny egg: if so, the new female will flitter off to find another plant, because sadly the caterpillars of this species are cannibalistic, and will eat the eggs or caterpillars of any subsequent females.

The caterpillars are easy to miss, but are superbly camouflaged to look just like the stems of Garlic Mustard.

Orange-tip (Anthocharis cardamines) caterpillar. Photo (By jean-pierre Hamon (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Garlic Mustard….

On a warm day, all sorts of other butterflies might crop up as well: Peacocks and Red Admirals may emerge from hibernation, and be found sunning themselves on a wall or path. Butterflies have to reach an internal temperature of about 28 degrees Celsius before they can fly – as Rebecca Warren points out, this is why it’s so dangerous for a hibernating butterfly to emerge too early, because they may not be fast enough to escape predators, and there might not be enough nectar to top up their energy stores. More reason to plant some early-flowering nectar sources, lovely gardener friends!

Orange Tip in St Pancras and Islington Cemetery

Peacock sunning itself, April 2021

Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) Photo By Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56042810

Dear Readers, there have been sightings all along the south coast during the past few weeks, which has gotten lepidopterists very excited. This butterfly has sometimes been seen in the summer, but those insects were thought to be migrants. The early appearance of these latest creatures is likely to be because they have emerged here, and this indicates that the butterflies must have bred and laid their eggs last year. It’s a tremendous boost, at a time when so many butterflies and moths are struggling.

The original extinction of the Large Tortoiseshell was thought to be tied to the Dutch Elm disease outbreak in the latter half of the 20th century, along with all the usual other factors, such as intensification of agriculture and deforestation. Elm is a major foodplant for Large Tortoiseshell caterpillars, but fortunately they also eat willow and poplar.

An alternative hypothesis for the loss of the species from the UK is linked to the fall in the number of predatory birds due to DDT. The caterpillars feed on the fine branches at the top of trees, which is where small birds such as tits do most of their foraging. The caterpillars have little defence against these birds, so it could be that the loss of the sparrowhawks, for example, upset the balance, and allowed the small birds to proliferate.

There was some concern that the Large Tortoiseshells were actually captive-bred and released, but if so, this has happened across a great swathe of southern England, from Cornwall right through to Kent. It’s quite possible that some have ‘arrived’ in this way, but also that migratory adults have stayed and bred, especially with our milder winters.

But how do you know if you’re looking at a Large Tortoiseshell, as opposed to a small one? Here’s the Large Tortoiseshell again…

Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychloros) Photo By Hectonichus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56042810

…and here’s the Small Tortoiseshell.

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais utricae) Photo By Jörg Hempel, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27756983

The Large Tortoiseshell is (surprise!) larger than the Small Tortoiseshell, but that can be difficult to discern unless you have the two species sitting next to one another. More important is that the Large Tortoiseshell is more predominantly orange than the Small Tortoiseshell, and generally the colours are not as ‘sharp’ in the larger insect. Also, note that the Large Tortoiseshell doesn’t have the bright white spots on the edge of each forewing, or the blue spots on the forewing, that the Small Tortoiseshell does.

If the Large Tortoiseshell is recognised as a resident, it will be the 60th species of butterfly for the UK, and the first new species added to the list since Butterfly Conservation started as an organisation in 1968. So, let’s keep our eyes peeled, and see what we can spot!

Dear Readers, any of you who are local to East Finchley might have noticed that the large London Plane trees on the High Road are currently surrounded by yellow plastic fences. Some have had the paving stones around them lifted, while others are now stranded in the middle of what looks, on the face of it, like tarmac. However, if you walk on the surface, you’ll notice that it’s slightly bouncy, a bit like the ‘stuff’ that is used in childrens’ playgrounds to stop the urchins from damaging themselves. So, what’s going on? I did some digging on Barnet Council’s website, and found some very interesting information.

The pavement areas around trees, especially large ones like the London Plane trees on the High Road, are often uneven and highly damaged, both by tree roots and by lorries and vans parking on the pavement – if you look, you’ll see that it’s often the paving stones closest to the road that are cracked. But there’s also the problem of rain water run-off – in heavy rain, a lot of the water flows into the road, and then into the overloaded water mains, which increasingly can’t cope with sudden downpours. So, the works around the trees are part of the SUDS initiative, meaning Sustainable Urban Drainage System. In some parts of the Borough, you might have noticed the development of rain gardens, or of areas of planting along the side of the road, where the plants soak up any excess water.

The material used around the trees is permeable, which means that water will pass through it and be taken up by the tree roots. It’s known as ‘Bound Rubber Crumb’, and is made from recycled car tyres. Because it’s flexible, it allows tree roots to grow and change without causing any cracking or trip hazards, Overall, it’s a good thing, especially for those of us with limited mobility/dodgy feet, or anyone pushing a pram or a wheelchair, and it’s good for the trees too – more water should be available to them instead of just running off the pavement.

The one thing I will say is that the Council haven’t communicated any of this, so I suspect there will be a fair measure of confusion and even suspicion about what’s going on. This is a bit of a shame, considering what a positive development this actually is.

Dear Readers, on Wednesday Jolene, my foster cat, went to the RSPCA Animal Hospital in Finsbury Park to get her hip re-X-rayed. As she was going to be sedated, she went without her breakfast, and gave every impression of being a poor, starving cat that nobody ever feeds. Fortunately she was picked up nice and early, and has just come back with a clean  bill of  health. She’s wandering around like a small furry drunken person, but the sedation will wear off soon, and she’ll be back to the chatty cat that she usually is.

She really is a lovely little cat, but I think she finds us a bit boring – she’d fit in well  with a household where there are people who’ll play with her for hours and give her cuddles as required. Also, once she can go outside she’ll probably find plenty to entertain herself, rather than the walnut shells and clothes moths that she’s currently obsessed with. She’ll be on the RSPCA website soon, and I’ll send you a link as soon as she’s online.