Author: David

Small-leaved plantain lilies, a form of hosta, evidently a favourite of someone who had responsibility for planting the vegetation along the Great Stour in Westgate Park, Canterbury.

Rye in Sussex has three rivers/ The Tillingham joins the Brede, which then joins the Rother. I didn’t manage to get close enough to the Tillingham for any views. The Brede features here in evening shots with the yachts along its banks.

The Rother is tidal here. It can be seen crossing Romney Marsh in shots looking down from high vantage pints in the town, such as the Ypres Tower area. There are also a couple of closer views from Rye Harbour.

Baobab planes are London plane trees with a massive trunk, believed to be a result of a virus infection.

On our visit to Canterbury, we noticed two of these trees. The first is behind the east end of the cathedral – two views above.

The next is in the middle of a lawn in Westgate Park.

It turns out these are the most easily spotted of five such trees which were planted by a Victorian nurseryman, their locations forming a cross according to some websites.

One of these trees is also portrayed in a big mural painted under one of the bridges crossing Westgate Park. The photo just shows what I thought was the most interesting panel of the mural.

Flowers on one of the lilies in Westgate Park at Canterbury. As I was taking the pictures, a small fly landed, prospecting for pollen.

A herring gull marches across a patch of short grass in the Westgate Gardens riverside park, Canterbury.

Not far away, a lesser black backed gull gets a good vantage point on one of the highest points of the cathedral.

Within the enclosed space which forms the Cathedral Close at Canterbury, the gardens displayed a variety of flowers. A lone pyramidal orchid was flowering in the middle of one of the lawns of the cathedral itself.

The yellow-flowered red hot poker, a variant I’d never even heard of before, was in a garden on the other side of the ring road. Everything else here was within the precinct.

Purple salsify is another species I’d never heard of before. Around the west midlands salsify is quite a common wild flower – jack go to bed at noon, with yellow flowers which close around mid-day. This garden plant was my first introduction to the purple species. A few days later, I noticed it was one of the many plants growing as a wild flower on the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve (pictures soon).