Old memories and new things

[shewhomust]

April 5th was my father's birthday - in my mind I still say 'is', but it's twenty years today since the last birthday of his lifetime. When I can, I like to mark the date by visiting Finchale Priory, where he and his family spent holidays during his childhood, in a hut which his father had built. That's where we went this afternoon:

At the top of the path we met a pair of walkers coming towards us, a woman of our age and a much younger man in a dog collar: did we know these woods well, they asked; was there another path that went down to the river? We told them the path they were on would take them to the river, if they persevered, and they turned round and set off again. They weren't walking very fast, but I was dawdling, taking pictures of the carpet of windflowers under the trees:

and the very first spears of wild garlic just beginning to bloom - in a week or two its white stars will have replaced those of the windflowers. Where the path reaches the river, and turns right along its edge, there is a little beach, and that's where we met the duo again. He was looking without much enthusiasm at the water, and we pointed out the notice that warns of strong currents. He was resolute: he was an Anglican vicar, it seems, and he was due to baptise someone "from a culture that requires total immersion" so he was scouting for a suitable location. He had previously baptised someone in the sea, but that was so cold (even wearing a wetsuit) that he thought he'd try the river...

A little further on, I spotted these alien growths:

I'd never seen anything like them, but durham_rambler photographed them with his phone, and tweeted the picture to @SeymourDaily, who tweeted right back that they are toothwort (Lathraea squamaria). A new-to-me plant identified by living-in-the-future technology.

So then we went and walked around the ruins, and stood on the bridge to laugh at the ducks. The female was just rootling around in the shallows, but the male was doing the full upside down dive, and they look so funny when all you can see is the tail and the feet paddling like mad.

Comments

[sovay]

When I can, I like to mark the date by visiting Finchale Priory, where he and his family spent holidays during his childhood, in a hut which his father had built.

I'm glad you were able to visit for him today.

So you can camp around the ruins?

toothwort (Lathraea squamaria)

It looks like an amazing cross between snapdragons and ghost pipe.

The female was just rootling around in the shallows, but the male was doing the full upside down dive, and they look so funny when all you can see is the rail and the feet paddling like mad.

I cannot see a duck in that position without thinking "Up tails all!"

[shewhomust]

So you can camp around the ruins?

Long story. In the '20s and '30s it was very informal: there was just the farmhouse, where you could get milk if you took your own jug. Now there is a caravan site, which used to be a holiday campsite, but seems to have converted itself into a retirement village, and there are 'private' signs so you can't walk along that side of the river to Godric's Garth...

We don't have ghost pipe, but yes, it looks to be a very similar animal, parasitic and without chlorophyll.

[lil_shepherd]

Just moved over here. Glad to have found you.

[shewhomust]

Likeise: the Gathering of the Clans proceeds...

I was thinking of you the other day - you'd posted some photos to Flickr?

[cmcmck]

That explains what the flowers we saw in the woods yesterday were!