The darkest days of winter are behind us, and spring will soon be on the way. But we don’t have to wait until the seasons change to find wonderful displays of colour in nature. On a walk around the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, I challenged myself to find every colour of the rainbow in the plantsContinue reading “Blog: The colours of winter”
Tag Archives: flowers
Folkdays: Violets
A spring bloom I’ve been really drawn to this year is violets. A few months ago, I would have struggled to identify these plant from any other purple flowers I spotted in a verge. But now I know what to look for, I am spotting them everywhere! Recently, I have had a go at foragingContinue reading “Folkdays: Violets”
Folkdays: Reviewing The Hedgewitch Botanical Oracle
My very first Folkdays post was a review, of Shakespeare and the Folktale by Charlotte Artese. This was a book I had read, aside from simply for my own enjoyment, as preparation for my MA dissertation. Well, that dissertation is now underway, and so I have not had much time to dedicate to writing aContinue reading “Folkdays: Reviewing The Hedgewitch Botanical Oracle”
Folkdays: Rose Lore
FOR MORE FOLKDAYS CONTENT, SEE MY BLOG. I’ve been working with roses quite a bit recently, as I’ve been making pigment from rose petals and using them to paint the flowers themselves. They’ve crept into my life in all sorts of other ways, too: I’ve recently written a piece about thorns (and the Anglo-Saxon runeContinue reading “Folkdays: Rose Lore”
Blog: Rose Petal Pigment
To brighten my small flat during lockdown, my parents brought me over some beautiful bouquets of flowers. I noticed, when the stamens of the lilies began to fall, how they stained any surface they touched a deep russet. I decided then to collect them, and try to use their powder as a natural pigment toContinue reading “Blog: Rose Petal Pigment”
Folkdays: Bluebells
FOR MORE FOLKDAYS CONTENT, SEE MY BLOG. I am blessed to have grown up in an area where bluebell woods abound. At this time of year, the Clent and Walton Hills, Uffmoor and Hagley Woods, and Wychbury Hillfort are carpeted with swathes of this beautiful flower. Though I cannot walk through these indigo seas thisContinue reading “Folkdays: Bluebells”
Nellie Cole 