A profusion of stitchwort

Greater stichwort: Rabalera holostea (formerly stellaria holostea)


This has come into full bloom in the past week in the tussocks of grass at the edge of the meadow beside the lane. Stitchwort is one of my favourite wild flowers, small and unassuming but so starry and pretty amongst the long grass. I walked up the hill before lunch, fairly briskly under an overcast sky; by the time I reached the top it was spotting with rain, but it didn't amount to much. There are still violets and a few primroses in the banks beside the lane, plenty of celandines, and bluebells are now opening among the wood anemones, though I only peeped over the fence at them today.

J's PA S is ill today, so I joined the online still life group with her this morning and tried to help her hand find the shapes of rose petals. It wasn't easy but she enjoyed it, having decided she would focus on just one element of the image the group was drawing. It's work in progress -we'll try to continue over the weekend. She's only one day with a PA in the past fortnight, and before that we had three or four disrupted weeks with two days support rather than three, so it's not surprising that I'm making slow progress with the garden. However, the absences have been unavoidable, M will be back from her holiday next week, and we've taken the opportunity to have a fairly slow and peaceful time, not setting the alarm every day and trying to make time for a few of the creative things I too rarely do with her. This afternoon I sowed several trays of seeds: more aubergines (because some of the first tray have been munched), a few more tomatoes, cucumbers, tarragon and sweet marjoram, and gazanias, which I've never grown before but hope to plant in containers for cheerful, photogenic colour. My neighbour C had lovely ones two years ago which I enjoyed photographing - they have lovely colour variations.