It is now SEPTEMBER, and this post has been in my drafts for a couple months now. It's very much fall here in Rankin Inlet. We've been home for a month now, although I had a bunch of extra solo travel in there, so it doesn't feel like it. Anyway, during…
It is now SEPTEMBER, and this post has been in my drafts for a couple months now. It's very much fall here in Rankin Inlet. We've been home for a month now, although I had a bunch of extra solo travel in there, so it doesn't feel like it. Anyway, during the month of July, I collected a lot of pictures of flowers. I slowly categorized them, and I wanted to share them with you here before it gets too much further in the past.
Northern Connections
Something that surprised me in the UK, especially in both Scotland and Ireland, was how familiar many of the plants were. There seems to be more in common between the biomes of the northern UK and the Canadian Arctic than between the Arctic and southern north America. I don't know if this is true, and I don't know why it's true - has it been that way since for thousands of years? Were seeds of these plants spread due to prehistoric migration, or in historic colonial times? I don't know! But here's what I observed.
This is the yellow vetchling, or yellow pea, and it is one of many many flowers that reminded me of the many varieties of vetch flowers we get up here. I don't know how much they're really connected, but the flowers have similar shapes.
This is English stonecrop, but this picture with moss and succulents growing wild between the rocks could have been taken by our cabin. We have different succulent-looking things that don't flower so impressively, but whose leaves do get those wonderful shades of red and green together.
These purple flowers are bell heather, and this might make you laugh, but I had no idea heather was purple! It's very similar to our arctic heather, which is white, with slightly different shaped flowers and leaves, but definitely a related plant.
In among the bell heather is the common heather. This is a much smaller version of heather, but still related, with that sort of micro evergreen bush thing going on.
Up in the Mourne Mountains, once we got near the summit, I found several plants that are *literally the same plants* that we have here. This is mountain sorrel, known by Inuit for its tasty sweet leaves.
On Slieve Martin, we found a great big wild blueberry bush. It obviously had been allowed by climate to grow and develop much more than our ground blueberry counterparts, but I knew that shape and shade of leaf immediately.
And finally, fireweed. Minimighty and I found this blooming on our hike at Cave Hill. I think of Fireweed as being iconic of the north of Canada, but what do I know about where it originated? Not much!
Gardens
The number and variety of gardens and cultivated flowers and bushes was overwhelming, but here are a few favourites that I thought worth mentioning. Just because I thought they were pretty, mind; I don't really know much of anything about gardening.
Shrubby Cinquefoil. Seen below with Morning Glory; I don't know if it's considered a weed there, but I have a thing for Morning Glories.
Fuscia are such showstoppers.
Leycesteria, says google, in the honeysuckle family.
A wildflower mix we walked past in Sligo several times a day, which someone had planted in their front garden in lieu of grass.
There are not a lot of things more romantic than ivy on a garden wall.
Wildflowers
Here are a few items from Keith's flowering meadow. I learned a ton about rushes, which are a pretty interesting plant in their own right, if also a bit of a project to manage.
These little purple flowers have loads of names, but the most recognizable to me is woundwort, or self-heal. There's a lot of history I don't know suggested in that name.
This beauty, the heath spotted orchid, grew in Keith's meadow. I found it other places as well, including on the Navan Fort, and always found it striking.
And of course, Meadowsweet. You don't wonder at the name once you've gone on a walk past a bunch of these lovelies. The smell is really something special.
I don't remember where I saw these delicate little blooms, but I liked them well enough to take a picture, and Google tells me they are snow blooms.
These are Wood Forget-me-nots. I find them surprisingly graphic with such clean shapes and colours on such a small bloom.
These big blousy things are Himalayan Balsam, and they're actually terribly invasive in the UK. Learning that did dim my enjoyment of them a bit, but they were friendly to see on my walks along the Lagan Canal.
These pretties were also along the Lagan Canal. I only learn now, from Google, that this is comfrey - a name familiar to me from literature, but it never had a shape for me before.
Hydrangeas
I always think of my mother-in-law when I see Hydrangeas, so I took this load of pictures for her. They must have really loved the soil and rain in Ireland, because they were so happy. So I'll leave these here.
Thistles
Finally, I'll leave you with a pile of thistles. Because of the timing of our visits, the thistles weren't flowering yet when we were in Scotland, but it turns out there are loads of them in Northern Ireland. Having learned more about the intertwined histories of these two places, it's not surprising in the least. I hope you've enjoyed this floral review of our month away; I have so much still to process from our trip! But as the weather here in Rankin gets dodgier, with beautiful fall colours but lots of cold and rain, I'm thankful for this excuse to look back on our colourful summer. Cheers!
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