Cabbages and Flax

 Surprising Sprouts

At Le Ripe early this spring we had a man with a tractor work over our orchard to tumble out the biggest stones and level the ground for easier mowing.

 The resulting freshly-turned and raked earth cried out for seeds. Grass would have been the obvious choice but inspired by friends, we opted for something prettier.

Our local supplier sells sacks of flax seed. Since the flax flower (linum usitatissimum) is a pretty blue, we thought this would make an attractive first planting before grass seeds were sown in autumn.

A Clump of Violets

Spring's Herald

Spring arrives officially in about 10 days but there are some exciting harbingers in the garden, not least of which this spectacular clump of violets, all the more precious for being wildflowers.

Orchids in the field

...and a small mystery to solve

Last May we discovered and discussed an unusual orchid, Ophrys apifera which had appeared in our garden. This year, in mid-April different specimens of orchid, glimpsed in the past but now more abundant, probably thanks to the Lack of Deer, are sprouting and budding in the lengthening grass of the more field-like areas of the garden.

This orchid might belong to the pyramidalis species of the Anacamptis genus of the Orchidaceae family, but doubts persist about colour and scent. I quote: The colour of the flower varies from pink to purple, or rarely white, and the scent is described as "foxy". 

Springtime in Chianti

A Glorious April

Sparkling, sun-filled with light breezes and clear skies. This April we have been blessed with fine weather, early and abundant flowering and mild to warm weather.
More rain would not have been amiss (whatever happened to April showers?) but it seems churlish to complain. 

It's Springing

Another Early Spring  

Should we be worried?
Or just accept it, together with Emily Dickinson?

Yellow Foxglove

An Unexpected Treat

We first noticed the long stalks with  blackened buds at the end of one summer a few years ago. Wild foxgloves at Le Ripe. Next season revealed them to have rather dirty yellow flowers, not the favoured blue or purple. 

After that we considered ourselves lucky to have native foxgloves yet unlucky that they were such an unprepossessing colour.

a Small Spring Miracle

the 

 Daffodils

Le Ripe is lucky to be set in the middle of 30 hectares (74 acres) of land, mostly comprised of woods. However at the bottom of our hill, along the Pesa river, are two large meadows, separated by a small rise.

 

the campo di sotto, or bottom meadow, one of two near the river

We don't often go down there but we do keep the fields clear of brambles and other invasive plants. 

Wildflowers

a sampling of May's wild blooms

Je dois peut-être aux fleurs d’avoir été peintre.

 'I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.' 

Claude Monet

wildflower posy with camomile, pinks, osyris, thyme, amongst others - thank-you Angèle

Spring!

When daisies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
“Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo...” 

When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
And merry larks are ploughmen’s clocks,
When turtles tread,and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he,
“Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo...”

William Shakespeare, 

Song from Love's Labour's Lost (1594-5)

in advance celebration of the 450th anniversary of his birth 

(circa 23rd April 1564)

Forcing Spring

It's coming. We all know that. Yet the more impatient amongst us cannot resist hurrying it along with a burst of imported, bright-faced primulas.

Still, hidden in the woods and alongside streams, native primroses - and violets - have appeared, reassuring us that we are not

deluding ourselves.

  

the voice of the turtledove

 springtime

wildflowers in the top field

The flowers appeare on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land...

 Song of Solomon 2:12 (1611 King James Bible)

collared dove or tortora dal collare orientale

The turtle, or turtledove or, to be precise, the collared dove, is certainly heard in our land, together with the cuckoo and other twitterers and warblers. We still await the nightingale.


...with thanks to someone else's sudden recollection of these apt and beautiful words...

Beauty and the Beast

On Porcupines and Iris


In April the irises flower in Chianti. They are mostly mauve (some are white or dark purple) and wave in fields or from the tops of walls along winding country roads.

According to Linnaeus in 1762, Iris Florentina was one of the most important irises to be grown commercially across Europe. It was used to make orris root, a powder to add fragrance to perfume or flavour to Chianti wine, now used principally as a fixative.  

typical field of irises or giaggioli as still found around San Polo or Lamole in Chianti

Winter Blooms

Hellebore - Helleborus Niger - Christmas Rose - Elleboro

and friends and relations

Christmas rose

Many years ago, walking in the hills above Griante, Lake Como, towards a small church with a view, San Martino, we happened upon an unforgettable scene: dozens and dozens of white hellebore growing in a dappled forest. They were so perfect, so abundant and thriving, it was a marvel. The sight is probably not mentioned in the guides because our walk took place at the end of winter, an unusual time for a hike in the hills. I now know that the hellebore were the well-loved Helleborus niger.

The middle to end of winter is when hellebore appears in the woods: first the dark green pointy leaves bursting up from the ground in a bush, then the ranuncula-like open-faced flowers which are white in this case, although many varieties and hybrids are cultivated nowadays and along with the glorious Amaryllis lily, seem to be the flower of the decade. 

from white to darkest purple

At Le Ripe we are lucky to have two varieties, though not the niger. Spread around our lime-rich woods in pleasing clusters, is the less appealing but still striking Helleborus foetidus, otherwise known as bearsfoot, dungwort and stinking hellebore, which has green, cup-like, drooping blooms edged with purplish red. It turns out not to be stinking at all. Research for this post has led to the satisfying discovery that this native, abundant 'stinking hellebore' is graced with the 'award of garden merit' by the Royal Horticultural Society. So there. 

our very own foetidus - such a shame, the name!

Water

Water III

the river Pesa as it flows below Le Ripe

       In the valley the Pesa flows past Le Ripe, creating a natural boundary and the actual boundary of our property. Some of the river-border is inaccessible thanks to tall banks and thickets, but some runs alongside two meadows. Of these two meadows, one was used for fodder and an orchard, the other for summer corn. We call them, rather unimaginatively, the first meadow and the second meadow. The old names were il campo di sotto (the field below) and il campo della raia (the field of the raia - meaning uncertain). The first meadow has easy access to the river although we have yet to 'lounge with friends in the soft grass' (see below) down there...

    

 Lucretius also describes the beauty of nature 

on the banks or "ripe" of rivers

           "...ergo corpoream ad naturam pauca videmus               

esse opus omnino: quae demant cumque dolorem,
delicias quoque uti multas substernere possint
gratius inter dum, neque natura ipsa requirit,
si non aurea sunt iuvenum simulacra per aedes
lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,             
lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur,
nec domus argento fulget auroque renidet
nec citharae reboant laqueata aurataque templa,
cum tamen inter se prostrati in gramine molli
propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae             
non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant,
praesertim cum tempestas adridet et anni
tempora conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas."

Therefore we see that our corporeal life

Needs little, altogether, and only such

As takes the pain away, and can besides

Strew underneath some number of delights.

More grateful 'tis at times (for Nature craves

No artifice nor luxury), if forsooth

There be no golden images of boys

Along the halls, with right hands holding out

The lamps ablaze, the lights for evening feasts,

And if the house doth glitter not with gold

Nor gleam with silver, and to the lyre resound

No fretted and gilded ceilings overhead,

Yet still to lounge with friends in the soft grass

Beside a river of water, underneath

A big tree's boughs, and merrily to refresh

Our frames, with no vast outlay- most of all

If the weather is laughing and the times of the year

Besprinkle the green of the grass around with flowers.

Lucretius De Rerum Natura   Book II  verses 20-33

trans. William Ellery Leonard 

river bank by our first meadow with violets

flowers besprinkling the green of the grass

...content by De Rerum Natura

Aconites

First signs?

winter aconite - eranthus hyemalis - pie' di gallina

Is it too soon to hope? The winter aconites would seem to say no. The weather has been sunny and mild, yet it is only the end of January....According to my (extensive) records, they usually appear in February, so are indeed a little early this year. Delightful, bright blooms to cheer us in the latter half of winter. The Italian name means hen's foot: quite descriptive really.