Riparian Dreams...

Well, the cold weather is starting to pass. One good thing that came from it was a timely dry spell (and the frosts may have kicked the tulips into acceleration).

This morning, as I pooled through the vast list of 'draft' posts on blogger, wondering which one I was in the mood to work on, I found this post I had started on Waterways, when I was sourcing ideas for how we could beautify the titular brook at Willowbrook. I thought I would post it this morning, just as it is - a picture scrapbook of possibilities...

Above and Below: Pictures of the Avon at Warwick castle taken 2 years ago.

Above and below: A small stream running through the countryside in Devon, also taken about tht time.

Below: An assortment of riparian scenes...

Lily of the lake...

'Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
And slips into the bosom of the lake:
So fold thyself, my dearest, thou, and slip

Into my bosom and be lost in me.'

-From The Princess, Part 7, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

We have just ordered our plants for in and around the lake. We want the lake to have plenty of colour for as much of the year as possible, as well as dense reeds and greenery for the local birdlife to nest in. Waterlillies seem a must..

I found this fantastic collection of antique botanical colour plates. Here are some examples from the collection, along with some photos of other plants we will plant around the lake:

Irises


Waterlillies

Yellow Spatterdock

Water Hyacinth


Pond Pickerel


Marsh Hypericum (St. John's Wort)


Water Forget me not


And of course some more Narcissus...


I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden Daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

- William Wordsworth.