Dance of the Faeries

It is a magical spectacle of the autumn, swarms of the cranefly Dicranomyia chorea dancing in patches of sunlight towards sunset. These were filmed in Fox Rosehill Gardens in November and I have also seen them in the old parts of the cemetery above Swan Pool in early October. Could they be mistaken for faeries or pixies? I think it likely that they are one natural phenomena that may have supported the folklore. 

November Wild flowers

November can seem like a rehearsal for winter as the days shorten, temperatures fall and deciduous trees make their final preparations for shedding their leaves. It is not though a month entirely of gloom with Nature snuggling down to sleep through the long nights. A few wild flowers can still be found adding colour to the landscape in the milder parts of Britain.

The plants I discovered on a walk at the beginning of the month can be divided into four groups. The first would be the last remnants of species that mainly flower in September and October such as Ivy and bramble flowers. The second group are those species that take advantage of Falmouth’s mild coastal climate to flower for much of the year, examples of these would be Red Campion and Ivy-leaved Toadflax. A few individual plants of spring flowering species can be enticed into flowering in autumn by mild weather, the primroses and wood sorrel flowers I saw for example. Finally there are the winter flowering species that tend to be garden escapees for example Winter Heliotrope.

In all I spotted twelve species flowering, a reasonable count for early November.