Far From the Madding Crowd: July 2016

Saturday, 9 July 2016

My Local Patch, Morden Bog

Plenty of wildlife on Morden Bog at this time of year, the Silver-studded Blue butterflies are out at the moment, plenty of dragonflies and damselflies are flying around, the heather is starting to come into flower and also there are loads of the sticky Round-leaved Sundew plant in the boggy areas.

Silver-studded Blue butterfly

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Common Darter (female)

This maybe the Biting Stonecrop but I am not sure, I am hoping someone on flickr can id this plant for me

Round-leaved Sundew

My Blog

I have taken the title of my blog from Thomas Hardy's fourth novel 'Far From the Madding Crowd' which he wrote in 1874. He took his title from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' completed in 1750. Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset where he lived for most of his life and where he based the stories in his novels. The word 'madding' means frenzied and there is a sense of freedom I get being out in the countryside and being close to nature away from the frenzied atmosphere of the towns and cities. I live in Dorset and like Thomas Hardy, it is where I have lived for most of my life, my blog is mostly about nature in Dorset. I am a member of the Dorset Wildlife Trust. I will include my garden and anything of interest about the natural world in Britain.