Tree Following: Rowan

A couple of months ago I introduced our Star magnolia. This time, we'll have a look at the rowan tree in our garden.

We moved into our house in November 2009 and on the 5 December of the same year there was a nationwide project called Tree O' Clock. At least 230,000 trees were planted during that single hour in 2009 and I'm glad to say that two of them were planted in our garden, a cherry and the focus of his post a rowan tree.

Me and our Rowan.

Moving swiftly on to 2014 and the rowan has put on great growth and for the first year it had multiple flower heads, rather than the single one of last year.

We only had a single fruit on the tree last year - which isn't surprising for such a young tree. It was interesting to see the single berry that remained on the tree, which start as a yellow-green colour before turning red, lasted well into spring. However, the berry is more correctly termed a 'pome' which is the type of fruit, which include apples, made by this subtribe of the Rosaceae family.

The rowan or mountain ash is a member of the utterly massive Rosaceae family which consists of more than 2800 species across 95 genera. The buds are covered in a hairy felt that fades over time.

 

When the serrated-edged leaves appear they are arranged in pairs along a central vein, which ends with a terminal leaf.

The flowers are a beautiful yellowish-white colour and are arranged on a pannicle-like structure called a corymb. As you can see in the photo below there are many flowers within the inflorescence. There are 5 roundish petals and many stamens surround the carpels.

Next time I'll give an update on both of my trees and may try to find some larger specimens of the star magnolia and a rowan, so I can see what my trees may eventually look like!

Until then, have a look at some of the other trees being followed this year throughout the world - over on Loose and Leafy:

Tree-following is kindly hosted by Lucy Corrander of Loose and Leafy.

Outdoor Swimming: Knoll Beach, Studland

After a couple of days to rest after our wedding, we went for a short honeymoon (or as Lucy calls it; a mini-moon) to Dorset. On the first day we stopped at Sand Banks to eat our pack up by the harbour before taking the chain ferry across to Studland.

One of the great things about this area of Dorset is nature reserve rolls into nature reserve - and rightly so; it's a gorgeous part of the country. We decided to park at Knoll beach, which is part of Studland Bay and owned by The National Trust. As members, parking was free, but we've heard that charges change with the season. For members, as well as your car sticker, make sure you take your membership card. There is plenty of parking - all from no more than 20 metres from the beach.

Apparently Studland was Enid Blyton's inspiration for Toytown - a nice fact for any Noddy fans out there!

It was a bit cold that day, so I wasn't too keen on having my first outdoor swim of the year, but I eventually braved the temperature and got my swimming shorts on. Over the years I've found that the best way for my body to accept being in cold water, is to take it slow and steady when immersing myself. This wasn't a problem here, as I had to walk quite a distance for the water to be above my kidneys. The descent is very shallow and the water very clear.

Me and Old Harry.

As soon as I started swimming, I realised that it was the best thing to be doing. It was wonderful to be heading toward Old Harry Rocks and viewing the stunning Purbeck Hills to the right. To the left was Bournemouth, easily recognisable due to the massive helium balloon that is the Bournemouth Balloon!


Ahead of me, though, there was a surprise interrupting the never ending sea; the chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight.

Isle of Wight in the distance.

It was such an amazing place to swim. While I was there, I noticed that the current gently took me towards Old Harry Rocks, which is fine as there's plenty of beach to aim for when you're ready to turn back.

Redend Point.

Afterwards a good cup of tea warmed me up sufficiently for a gentle wander along the beach, where we saw black-headed gulls and the odd crow. We also saw some people going through the rock pools with nets, but they didn't seem to be having much luck. What was interesting to us was the cliffs and what seems to be red-stained sandstone of the Poole Formation. As you can see there are lots of small holes in the stone. I did see some sort of bee enter one of the holes, but it didn't appear after a few minutes, so we moved on. Looking online it looks like the holes are made by burrowing mortar bees.

It was a wonderful day at Studland Bay, one I hope we will repeat in the future.

If you'd like to visit this spot, click here. Already been here? It'd be great to hear your experiences in the comments.

Married!

On Friday 30th May, Lucy and myself got married! We had a wonderful and lovely day surrounded by our closest family. We had a short honeymoon in Dorset, which has given me lots of ideas to blog about!



As things become a bit more settled, I hope to return to some sort of blogging routine - and importantly getting back into reading the blogs that I follow. Until then, I hope that you're all well and enjoying the year!

Best wishes,
Tim