i discovered a new edible plant this week, on my seaside breakfast/adventure. or rather, this plant was a discovery to me. apparently it's very common along the coast but i never really have registered sea arrowgrass in bloom like this. in fact, this stalk was blooming all alone on the little beach and caught my attention by standing out from the crowd of saltmarsh rush, an unassuming, tiny plant that, upon closer inspection, revealed quite opulent flowers, at least in the stamen department.
i had company among the reeds and rushes, a pair of cranes were also on the prowl. they are very shy birds, but i was moving in a similar fashion to them, taking careful steps and watching out for snakes, so they kind of accepted me after a while and continued their crane ways, including crying out. i knew they are loud birds, having heard them from afar all my life, but i had never been so close before. i am also not all that much taller than them, and when we were staring at each other over the vegetation from a short distance, a voice on the back of my mind reminded me that these are, in essence, dinosaurs. not that i was scared, but there was a certain jurassic park vibe to the moment.
on another day i ventured into the woods with my mushrooming gear after finding a cow bolete on the fieldside. there weren't any in the forest, but i had a good trek and was reassured that a good harvest of both cranberries and lingonberries might be ahead. there is something man-made about lingonberry blossoms, they are almost too cute to be true, like some victorian fantasy.
moorland spotted orchids were just about to open on the shady paths i took. they are surprisingly common around here for such an exotic looking plant. i don't usually like variegated leaves but i kind of adore these. i also spotted (not literally, they were on it all along) some type of leaf beetle on the sunny side of the same path.
