🌿☕ Good morning 🌞 We have beautiful low summer morning light here today. I took these photos of white cosmos & Queen of Sweden 🌹 to try and capture it at around 7.30 am No filters or fancy things used.. I particularly like the shadows on the rose 💕 Enjoy 💐 #bloomscrolling

🌿☕Morning☀️ Imperial Gardens, Cheltenham💐 Once described as a swampy unpassable area, only crossable by the unsteadfast footing of a plank, an uncultured marsh, offensive to sight, stagnant with no wholesome exhalations! 25,000 🌺s now produce wonderful floral displays for marvelous exhalations!💃🌿

🌿☕Good evening & happy weekend🌿 Hopefully this will calm the mood.. Gorgeous graceful Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe nr Cheltenham 🥰 I could happily sit here and while away my time.. The castle is the final resting place of Queen Katherine Parr. The only English Queen buried on private land 🙏

🌿☕Morning👋 Discovered in 1690 by Charles Plumier, the begonia was named after his sponsor Michel Begon Related to pumpkins, many are edible & the stems taste of rhubarb 🎃🌱 Tuberous begonias like Begonia x tuberhybrida & wax begonias like Begonia x semperflorens are known for their edible flowers🌺

🌿☕Good morning☕🌿 Planting trees in Cheltenham goes back to the 18th century Captain Henry Skillicorne, the founding father of Cheltenham spa, began planting forest trees within the town. In winter 1739 he planted elm & lime, creating avenues that still exist today That tradition continues❤️🌿

🌿☕ Good old Lidl has brought Plopp to the UK. I had to get some of course 😂 For the uninitiated they are small bars of chocolate with a chewy caramel centre 😋 Plopp is nothing new, it has been ingratiating our wonderful planet since 1949 Over 95% of Plopp bars are sold in Sweden - not any more👌🎉

🌿☕ Good afternoon☀️ The word meadow comes from Old English mædwe meaning mown land or land used for hay, not just a wild grassy field Originally a meadow was a place managed for hay, not just an untouched field The meaning expanded to include natural grassland, particularly rich in wildflowers🌸🥀💐🌿

🌿☕ Good Morning☀️ 💐Hollyhocks💐 Holly derives from holy (as in Holy Land) ⚔️ Christian Crusaders are thought to have encountered them in their crusades, and are thought to have used them to make a salve to treat the Crusaders' horses hind legs or 'hocks' Hence the portmanteau: Hollyhock 🐎🌿

🌿☕Morning🌞 Not all rainforests are tropical🌿 The UK is home to rare temperate rainforest, even more threatened than tropical rainforest This deciduous woodland is wet & humid & one of the UK's most biodiverse environments giving habitat for lichens, liverworts & mosses & other flora and fauna🌿💚💚💚

🌿☕Morning☀️ Hydrangea, comes from the Greek meaning hudro: water & angeion: vessel C.40 million yrs old, Hydrangea Alaskana was found in rock in Alaska, USA in a rock from the paleogene period Did you know they have no petals! They have sepals, small leaves protecting the flower bud🌿💐 #frogmillpub

🌿☕ Good morning Pretty Lavender 🪻 at Snowshill, Cotswolds 🥰 From the mint family perhaps from Latin lividus "bluish, livid" 😡 & associated with the latin lavare to wash because it was used to scent washed fabrics & as a bath perfume Bath bomb anyone? 🪻🌿 #bloomscrolling

🌿☕ I was just having a #bloomscroll on my feed & I came across this one from 5 months ago.. It is fantastic that after all this time both this African Daisy & the fuchsia are still blooming in September 🌿

🌿☕Biophilia is the term for humans’ innate 💕 of nature Research shows that time in natural spaces lowers stress, improves mood & boosts cognition Studies of Japanese forest bathing (Shinrin-yoku) found reduced cortisol, lower blood pressure & strengthened immunity linking direct benefits to heath

🌿☕ Good morning.. I give you Brian Bilson.. beautiful 🌧️ ☔ @brianbilston.bsky.social #bloomscrolling

🌿☕ Late summer garden flowers 🌺 I think my favourite is the sunflower, as it seeded itself having dropped from the bird feeder above 🌻 🌻 🌻 #bloomscrolling

🌿☕ Good morning 🌞 Rain and blustery all sorts here today 🌧️ ☔ 🌧️ we need that rain.. Dead nettles (Lamium album) are thriving in the hedgerows, not to be confused by stinging nettles (Urtica) even though they look similiar- they're actually related to the mint family & flower right up to December🎄

🌿☕ The beautiful pop of rose hip red dotted amongst the hedgerows ❤️🍂🍁 So good for you too - packed full of vitamins C, A, E & used during WWII in the UK as a syrup to substitute for the lack of citrus fruits & for 1,000s of years prior all around the world 🌎🙏 www.gardenia.net/guide/rose-h...

🌿☕Good lovely morning🌄 I ❤️ Cheltenham street art, this piece is wonderful - the lighting 📸 enhanced in yesterday's showery conditions Cheltenham Paint Festival was postponed this year, here's to it's return in 2026! 🎨 www.cheltenhamrocks.co.uk/things-to-do... #Rocket01 #faunagraphic #streetart

🌿☕ I'm not sure who to credit this to as I can't find the original.. but if you are out there, thank you 🙏... you gave me a chuckle 🤣 #rightsaidfred #history #wordplay

🌿☕Morning..☀️ My 💕neighbour grows veggies, this was her latest gift.. a nice bendy marrow. I made a Thai soup😋 The heaviest marrow (Cucurbita pepo) weighed 116.4 kg(256 lb 9.8 oz)& was grown by Vincent Sjodin (Barry Island, Wales) in a competition in Malvern, Worcestershire which is not far from me

🌿☕ Early morning dog walk near Cheltenham race course.. very few flowers around but I still 📸 a few: Datura, himalayan balsam, sow thistle & deadnettle These "weeds" are a very important source of nectar for bees especially at this time of year when few other nectar-producing plants are flowering🐝

🌿☕ A very hearty good morning 🌅 🌺Flower bombing required today 🌺 🌞 Reflections of Summer 🌞 Enjoy! 💐 #bloomscrolling #summertime #bees #ladybird #nature #uplifting

🌿☕A Labrador called Bosco was elected mayor in Sunil, California serving 1981 - 1994 He isn't the only one, there have been cats, goats, a cow & even a mule Animals vote too: bizarreculture.com/democracy-in... *For completeness, this isn't a 📸 of Bosco, it's my Labrador sleeping like an upturned🍌

🌿☕Good lovely morning🌞 Seagulls have supraorbital salt glands behind their eye sockets, allowing them to consume seawater & still maintain a healthy electrolyte balance. Their function is similar to kidneys, allowing survival without access to fresh water They share these glands with penguins🐧 🐧🐧🌿

🌿☕ Live in Cheltenham? Want to see UK democracy close up.. I used to work there - so important to understand how legislators work - plus the building is an architectural gem. Not in Cheltenham but interested? Speak to your local MP as many do similar tours 💕 #democracyispower

🌿☕A very good morning🌞 A little pick me up for everyone today.. a green vervet monkey(Chlorocebus sabaeus)🐒 This is a little how I feel today, I've been scrumping & have picked way too many apples - a lot of 🍏 baking awaits in the next couple of days I dare say this fella would have enjoyed one🍏🌿

🌿☕ That's it.. much better. If I can't rescue my garden from drought, then at least I can rescue my husband's Swiss cheese (delicious monster) plant 😂 Jobs a goodun 💪🌿 In the wild it can grow to 20 metres in height & the aerial roots have been used as ropes in Peru & make baskets in Mexico 🧺 💕

🌿☕ Few good ideas for the 🍅 tomato 🍅 growers out there in this wonderful interview from the BBC in 1975.. This is what England was completely like 50 years ago which is probably why I am the way I am... 😂 My grandmother used to grow them on her windowsill 🌿 youtu.be/ggisP1Xm10M?...

Wise words...

🌿☕ Morning, it's cloudy with a chance of meatballs in Cheltenham☁️ Breakfast first.. tea with marmalade on toast (see what I did there🥁💥) Marmalade hoverfly: Resembling the colour & patterns of marmalade, some bands appearing thick & others thin- a little like the cuts of the 🍊 jam #bloomscrolling

🌿☕Staying on the bug theme this evening, my garden is patch dry! 🥵😩 The sloe bug or hairy shieldbug: Dolycoris baccarum From Greek: Dolyos "cunning" & koris "bug" & Latin bacca "fruit" so it means cunning bug that feeds on fruit💥 When scared they secrete a liquid that smells like boiled cabbage 🥬

🌿☕Good morning 🌅 Stag beetle lava.. the UK's most fabulous and largest beetle🪲💕 The adults can lift 100x their weight! In German folklore, it was associated with the Norse god Thor. Sometimes called a thunder beetles, it was thought they could summon thunderstorms⛈️ www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/sta...

🌿☕Good lovely morning👋 Quick visit to Somerset to see family, I wanted to share with you Bath Place in Taunton. Such a beautiful area with lots of quirky shops 🥰 Most of the buildings retain their original Georgian & Victorian frontages @tauntontowncouncil.bsky.social @swheritagetrust.bsky.social

🌿☕ An afternoon aubergine.. the flowers on this are lovely, very delicate The Vegetable Orchestra in Vienna play with aubergines "Some of their classics include the carrot recorder, a cucumberphone, percussive pieces of aubergine or even a leek violin" guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2025/3/...

🌿☕Morning🌞👋 The SW England drought! I can't remember when we had a good thrash of 🌧️ Only a few flowers are thriving, like red Valerian. Brought to England in c.1600s from the med- makes sense! The young leaves are edible raw or cooked (broad bean flavour) & roots cooked. Sprinkled 🌺 on salads🌿

🌿☕Kniphofia Sherbet Lemon (Fyi my favourite childhood sweet after the Cadbury Chocolate Eclair..), and it is exactly that colour!🍋 Kniphofia was named to honour Johann Hieronymus Kniphof, an 18th-century German physician & botanist It is native to Africa & is also known as the red hot poker 🔥🔥🔥

🌿☕New bookshop visit today @hatchards.bsky.social Cheltenham Gorgeous building, I approve wholeheartedly with the bookshelf stairs & the general country mansion feel .. staff were wonderful too & super helpful when I tried to get a copy of Olav H. Hauge poems (recommend..) 📚5,000 years of writing📚

🌿☕This is so deeply deeply depressing & disappointing @unitedutilities.bsky.social you are an embarrassment Most of Windermere polluted with sewage bacteria: share.google/y98qmbxUoi2P... Look to your European friends for what good looks like & get on with it one-handed-economist.com?p=4715

🌿☕Good morning🌞 I spotted a snowberry bush this morning😍 Introduced to Britain from North America (1817) known as waxberry & ghost👻 berry Containing saponin, an antioxidant & antimicrobial substance. Native Americans used it to clean hair, make tea for stomach disorders & for fever🌿 #cheltenham

🌿☕ This lovely cow 🐮 is called: Celine Dion 🎶 Well not the consonants, just the vowels.. #sorry

🌿☕ An ode to the British Stile.. The word stile has its origins in Old English, from the word "stigel," which meant a set of steps or a ladder for climbing over a fence or wall. This, in turn, is related to the Germanic word "stig" meaning "to climb" A metal styled stile... #cheltenham

🌿☕ Beautiful & sunny today☀️ A little like this 📸 of edible hawthorn rosehips, or pixie pears 🧚 Haw was the Old English term for hedge, from the Anglo-Saxon haguthorn meaning a fence with thorns. It was thought to be used for the crown of jesus & Serbian folklore swears by it for killing vampires🦇 🌿

🌿☕ Bindweed is a UK native wild flower 🌺 Perhaps not so great in a garden, but I rather liked how this was growing up the fencing at Cheltenham Racecourse One alternative name is granny pop out of bed. Whenever I see it I think of the big bad wolf in red riding hood 🐺 💕 #bloomscrolling

🌿☕Some udderly fascinating facts about cows🐮 1. No two cows have the same markings 2. Cows have 22,000 genes & 80% are shared with humans 3. Cows only have one stomach (myth blown) 4. Cows can detect smells from up to 10km away 5. I tried to get my daughter to believe this 👇 was a giraffe (failed)

🌿☕Morning🌞 I re planted my window box yesterday, totally gone over in the ☀️ Gardens don't need to be large to attract insects 🦋 🌿 dating back to ancient Rome with renaissance & victoria revivals they've been with us for a long time No garden? Try one💐 #bloomscrolling @profaliceroberts.bsky.social

🌿☕A lucky 3: A gatekeeper butterfly (hedge brown or Pyronia Tithonus)with 2 honey 🐝s Pyronia is from Greek pyr meaning 🔥 Tithonus from Greek mythology: He was a mortal 💕 by Goddess Eos who granted him immortality but not eternal youth sentencing him to old age forever #webbsgardencentre #cheltenham

🌿☕ What is more Summer like than a sunflower ... ? 🌻 ..and it does not just grow above the ground, sunflowers produce a single taproot that grows sometimes to over 1.5 metres deep.. substantial! It is also the national flower of Ukraine & is a symbol of peace & solidarity🌻 #bloomscrolling

🌿☕ Good morning 🌞 Perhaps today needs to become #savebritishpudday ? I'm happy to oblige! This was yesterday's effort 🍏 🍏 🍏 @englishheritage.bsky.social www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/search...

🌿☕Our neighbour's walnut tree overhangs our garden. Wonderful😍 Whilst the ancient Greeks thought the wrinkled nuts looked like brains calling them karyon (heads) the Romans had a lower body part in mind 🤔 Dedicated to the God Jupiter & named juglans “glands of Jupiter" - literally “Jupiter’s nuts”💥

🌿☕Summer=Common fleabane💛 Historically dried, strewn or burnt to prevent.. fleas Also calles pulicaria dysenterica, Latin for flea (pulex) & dysentery... Nice ‘Fleabane bound to the forehead is a great helpe to cure one of the frensie' good for ‘the itch’ & other skin disorders too.. Enjoy 🤮😂💛