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I was in Glasgow the other week on a trip to visit galleries and see a couple of people - and while exploring the city I saw this massive mural on the side of a building overlooking a car park. I'm reliably informed it's painted by the artist Smug and it shows Scottish wildlife through the seasons - and there's a huge, beautiful dandelion at the bottom right hand side of the wall. Fabulous! The cars in the image give you a sense of scale.
The poor dandelion - in with a list of the worst weeds that farmers have to deal with. I found this image in The Modern Children's Library of Knowledge - Book One: The World of Nature by Leslie Wolff and Geoffrey Spencer published by The Grolier Society Ltd in 1966
It's that time of year when the shelves in various shops are stocked with weed killers and pesticides ready for the new killing season of unwanted plants that crop up in garden lawns, paths, flowerbeds and patios. Being so recognizable, the dandelion if often used to promote weedkillers. The dandelion is a great plant for infuriating the perfectionist gardener with its persistent resilience.
Here, on a Bayer Garden product, the dandelion is not only the star on the front of the packaging, but also in diagram form on the reverse - showing how the product is taken in by the plant to the roots.
I've not mentioned real dandelions on the blog for a while - with being away in India for 2 months in November and December and then coming back to UK and it being winter - there hasn't been any of note around. I have continued to collect dandelion leaves for the Dandelion Diaries (apart from in India where i didn't find one example).
However, it's now the time of year that dandelions start to come out and i saw a few the other week starting to flower at the side of the road. This last week has been nice mild weather so dandelions are coming out in full force and providing the new queen bumblebees and other early insects with a vital food source.
I went to Brockholes Nature Reserve yesterday in the sunshine and there's also coltsfoot, celandine and lots of daffodils in full bloom - yellow is so in this season darling.
I have a beautiful book Creations of a Moment: The Photography of William Henry Fox Talbot by Geoffrey Batchen, published by Phaidon Press, which is a celebration of the photographic work of Talbot (1800 - 1877). Batchen says:
'Talbot experimented with photography throughout his life, making pioneering images of his home, Lacock Abbey, portraits of family and friends, and still lifes of plant specimens, pieces of lace, and many other objects of the time.'
I have no doubt that plate 51 in the book shows dandelion seeds. It's entitled 'Seeds' and was made c.1853. Revealing their beauty it must be one of the first photographic images of dandelion seeds.
