This is a companion piece to Lying in the Grass. That slideshow was shot in May three years ago, all the photos taken in my own garden within the previous week, and all native wildflowers. 

This time, all the shots were captured in one day, July 18th, on a visit to Barley Cove with my friend and fellow nature-lover, artist Damaris Lysaght. The purpose of our visit was to monitor a rare plant, Dodder (below). This is one of the very few places in Ireland in which it grows, parasitising on the roots of the Wild Thyme, and mainly visible as a twisted mass of reddish stems. We were not sure if the tiny flowers, looking like miniature cauliflower heads, were about to flower or had flowered already.

At this time of year the dunes at Barley Cove are a carpet of wildflowers. Many of them are tiny so you have to get up close to make their acquaintance. Photo taken by Damaris.

Damaris had another reason for getting closer. We were lucky to catch a Dark Green Fritillary flitting from spot to spot and Damaris, a butterfly expert, figured it was probably laying eggs on the basal rosettes of the Common Dog Violets that flourish on the dunes. In the last photograph of the slideshow she is trying to see butterfly eggs – a task that defeated even her!

The music I have chosen is Ave Maria Stella from Templum by Micheal O’Suilleabhain. 

Here is a list of the flowers in the order in which you are seeing them. 

Title Slide: Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme, Oxeye Daisy

Dodder X2

Wild Thyme, Eyebright

Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme, Oxeye Daisy, Oxeye Daisy

Rough Hawkbit (I think), Oxeye Daisy X2

Oxeye Daisy, Sea Holly

Wild Thyme, Rough Hawkbit X2

Sand Pansy X4

Common Centaury X4

Fairy Flax

Bee on Wild Thyme

Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme

Wild Thyme X2

Lady’s Bedstraw X3

Rough Hawkbit, Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme X4

Damaris searching for Dodder

Wild Thyme and Cat’s-ear X3

Wild Thyme, Eyebright X4

Cinnabar Moth caterpillars on Ragwort (their food plant)

Bulbous Buttercup

Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill X3

Pyramidal Orchard X5

Six-Spot Burnet Moth(s) on Wood-rush X10

Dark Green Fritillary X3

Damaris looking for butterfly eggs X2