I didn’t take any notes this week, focussing instead on drawing and then using a digital microscope to look at plant specimens and also on site to record the plants in-situ and the built environment too.
The following notes were taken on Monday 29 Sep (8.30am-11am)
3 people are drinking hot drinks in take away cups from Costa, chatting, they leave after 5mins, none of them sit down, the seats are soaking wet with dew from the foggy morning. They stand near to bench A.
2 people come stand by the wall over looking the nature reserve, they separate themselves from the other 3, and stand right up against the right side hedging.
It’s become a very clear bright morning with a stark blue sky and warm sun, after quite a thick fog, perhaps the first of this autumn.
On the ground in front of bench are the remnants of people smoking hand rolled cigarettes, a couple of shreds of cig papers, two butts, and small pieces of cards – makeshift filters. There are also 2 ready made cig butts in the garden bed and several in between the paving where there is no grout. There is another tailor cig butt in the plant to the left of bench A.
All the plants are wet, the weight of the dew has made the verbena droop towards the walkway behind the benches, it looks a bit like a huge head of hair being parted.
Sun is reflecting bright off the wet stone walkway.
The box hedge seems to have more new growth tips, they are a pale yellowy green and covered in shining drops of dew, perhaps that is what make them more prominent or that I’m looking at them from a standing position, from in front of bench A, previously I’ve ben sitting next to hedge on bench B.
The dried heads of the Eryngium next to bench a have absorbed the dew, likewise with the browned flower parts of the Verbena, whilst the tiny few remaining purple blooms are still wet.
The hairy horehound seems to be the most hydrophobic, its leaves have very bulbous drops that sit on top, whereas the Persicaria next to it with its smoother green leaves pool the dew and the arrowhead shaped leaves and their downward-sloping connection to the stem will likely funnel the water down onto the plants base. The Horehound’s top 2 pairs of opposite alternating leaves also lead downwards to the plant’s stem but the water doesn’t look to be pooling or gathering in a way that would easily move in that direction. In fact on the larger leaves further down the stems it seems to be gathering into large droplets on the leaf tip.
It’s 9.06am and I see 2 honey bees on the Persicaria.
I see the same blue staffy as I did last Wednesday morning.
9.15am someone’s small dog falls in the canal, the owner is wailing and screaming, it’s hard to determine at first if she is in danger herself. The small dog can swim and someone climbs down the lock to pull it out of the water.
Another person comes into the site to watch the dog rescue against the wall, though its not a very good viewing location.
Once the dog is out the 2 people leave by the right hedge and the third person too.
It’s 9.22am and there are less people around. I stand by the wall, see 2 coots in a similar place to last week. I can hear construction machinery in the distance to my left and the water running thru the lock to my right. I hear a wren and a sparrow and see a moor hen. A cormorant flies overhead toward the nature reserve. The church bell rings, it’s 9.25am, I wonder why it’s marking that time?
The garden orb spider is still in the same place. I see a yellow and black striped hover fly on the Horehound. The spider’s web is partially destroyed, heavy with dew.
A bumble bee at 9.33am. It’s got a rich amber shoulder and amber and black striped abdomen. Another bumble bee, they seem most interested in Horehound and Verbena. The honey bees in the Persicaria.
There are now three honey bees 9.54am
I find two 1st instar southern green shield bugs on the asters.
The dew is drying off the Persicaria at the southern end of the bed, and the verbena next to it, which looks to be standing up a bit more. The horehound on the southern edge is still very wet, glistening. I see a fly, shiny blueish, common.
I spend time measuring with a measuring tape.
Measurements
These heights as well as the widths and diameters feed into a 1:50cm scale map of the site, a scale map isn’t going to show me anything new.
Maximum heights of plants, have included a range where there are multiple plants or a lot of variation in one plant:
Horehound:60-80cm
Verbena: 130-160cm
Aster:40-50cm
Hedges:93-98cm
Rush: 230cm
Geranium: 20cm
Persicaria: 75-80cm
Eryngium: 104cm
Two people with wheelie suitcases stop and look over the wall towards the lock.
I stop at 10.29am for a snack and drink. It is warm!
3 mallards, 2 males and 1 female down on the water. It’s still too wet to sit on the bench so lean on the wall, using it as a table for my flask and cup. A coot, a blue dragon or damsel fly. A shoe is floating, sole up, in the canal.
A hover fly behind me and a honey bee flies off over the water. Another hover fly and a small flying thing, flitting around, not landing, maybe a soft powdery winged thing so it can’t land on the wet plants.
I take a series of quick photos of the plants shadows captured on my notepad, trying to take advantage of the bright sun casting good shadows and to get a better look at their outer shape without being distracted by other details of the plants.
I see two flies mating by the horehound. A Small Blue butterfly on the verbena. Its iridescent a little bit purple and a very pale creamy-green colour on the other side of its wings. I try to capture it on camera with a white sheet behind but clumsily knock the plant and scare it off
It comes back and I manage to get some photos with white paper behind it. It doesn’t seem to mind me being close.
I go back to measuring 10.43am and then produce this map:
I draw some more plant parts, concentrating on the tips, but not the flowers, I want to se how the visible parts of the stems and leaves grow and mature. I’m also interested in the seed heads that have formed after the flowers and wonder how many of the plants are likely to naturalise in these beds, as there are so few weeds is that because there is not space for new seedlings to spring up? Or because of weeding labour done by a maintenance team?
Eryngium eburneum focused on the seed head/flower arrangement and of leaves up the dried out stems.
Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’ focused on leaves and stem, only capturing bottom of the flower spike.
Greek horehound Ballota pseudodictamnus, tips of stems with new (non-flowered) growth and trying to draw the growth arrangement of leaves and flowering parts.
Fauna record tally
People: 3 (stay for 5mins, drinking coffee), 2 (stay for 30mins, drinking coffee), 1 (stays for 7mins), 2 (stay 2mins), 1 (me, stays for 2hr 30mins)
4 bumble bees
3 honey bees
2 shield bugs
3 flies
3 hover flies
1 butterfly
1 damsel/dragonfly
1 mystery butterfly/moth/fly
1 garden orb spider (same as previous Wed)
Heard a wren
Heard a sparrow
2 moorhens
2 coots
1 cormorant
1 blue staffy (same as previous Wed)
3 mallard ducks
Evidence of: 8 kinds of birds (I assume the additional presence of pigeons and wood pigeons); 9 kinds of insect; domestic dogs, one I’ve seen here before, one in the canal(!); 9 people enter the small site (myself included). Time frame 8.30am to 11am.
Built components focused on materials
All the components I can see are grey or brown (loosely):
The bricks in the wall: are orange/reddish brown or dark grey, with a smaller number of a dirty yellow grey (Thames Estuary mud?). The concrete holding them together has yellowed and contains small stones throughout. One the top surface fo the wall there is lichen on the bricks, black, acid yellow-green and a mustardy yellow, smaller patches of grey green lichen. Also patches of what looks like black paint, thick and smoother than the bricks. The bricks are very roughly finished, pock marked and some have creases formed by air when the clay has been pressed into the brick mold. Someone has stuff a cigarette butt into one of the larger crevices in the bricks.
At the base of the wall: covering the bottom 17cm of bricks is a metal guard.
On the floor: are 10cm wide, and 20cm/25cm/30cm long paving stones in perpendicular lines to the base of the wall. I cannot pick out a pattern in the choice of paver length, other than nearby rows never have pavers ending in the same spot. The pavers are all stone, possibly granite and range in colours/tones, there seem to be 3 varieties: 1 rough surface in mostly grey, 1 rough surface in a warmer grey with some soft brown, 1 smoother surface mostly grey. There are the similar particles in each variety, just in different quantities and finishes.
The benches: have been painted in a warm brown varnish, you can se th weathered grey where the varnish is cracking off around the deeper fissures in the bench wood. Set into the top of each bench are 6 5cm diameter wooden circles. It is unclear what they are for, but assume to do with fixing them in place or more to hide whatever unsightly materials are holding them in place. I get down on the ground to peer into the 10cm gap between the bench and the ground and it’s a mess, there is trashed shoved in the gap and I now realise people are slipping trash between the two slabs that make up each bench, mostly cigarettes and food packaging.
Two members of the Estates crew arrive, it’s 11am, they are litter picking, there is no litter large enough or visible enough for them to take.
Notes and drawing
I wrote some more focused plant notes, incorporating small drawings as I wrote. Below is a roughly typeset version with the images set in a similar way to my handwritten notes.
Site: Two benches facing Regents canal and the surrounding garden beds. The canal is not visible whilst seated there.
Located on the high walkway of Coal Drops Yard (CDY). I find out the walkway is called Bagley Walk on a nearby map.
The following are notes from the first morning on site, Wednesday 24 September.
I’ve called the benches: bench A, on the left and bench B, on the right when facing Regents canal.
View from bench B
Straight ahead WSW: Trees, only trees and sky visible. A variety of trees present, can attempt to ID some: Willow Salix viminalis both very tall and some smaller ones towards the canal bank; Hawthorn Crataegus monogyne; Alder (or maybe Beech? Broad leaf, glossy dark green with a slightly drooping habit that is tall and narrow with dark brown seed hanging in clusters at branch tips); an Acer of some sort; weeping silver birch; Ash Fraxinus excelsior.
And sky above, in morning a touch of blue, mostly grey/white cloud cover with sun brightening it up and more blue sky around 9.30am, the sun warms the place up too.
To the right NNW: 3 cranes on building sites in the distance (hard to say how far off that is), a rooftop of grey slate in the nature reserve across the canal, the top of a red brick structure which looks much older than its surrounds. It is a small rectangular structure with decorative brickwork inc arches and a chimney stack, the tops of rail lines, trees and behind them what looks like residential buildings quite new looking, turning further to my right 3 gas works 2 of which have contemporary buildings inside them. Also more garden on the walkway: over the yew/box hedge is a Cornus with deep red stems (Cornus alba most likely) and a plant behind which I don’t recognise with long straggling stems with thorns and odd-pinnate leaves, a kind of dog rose I think.
To the left SSW: A part of the CDY buildings curves round the canal older looking brick buildings that may have been part of industry on the canal at some point (ie. They look functional and the name CDY indicates an industrial heritage), 2 tall blocks (offices) a lot of glass and metal one has what looks like a roof top garden.Then further around to the left (SE) are two more tall buildings made from either a creamy coloured stone or concrete, the furthest to the left has very tall narrow glass panels all around and a rooftop garden with a line of small trees on the edge facing the building next to it.
Fauna record
Started at around 9.15am
Heard a coot, stood up saw a coot on the canal
A seagull in air
Tits flitting about in the trees
Heard a wren
A wood pigeon in a tree
Pigeons flying over head
Domestic dogs: a whippet in a suit!, a blue staffy, a bull mastiff or similar and others I didn’t record
A garden orb spider, hidden next to its web
As the day warms more insects visible (9.44am on)
4-6 bees, fluffy large and small bumble bees, cannot ID
2 flies
1 3rd instar of the Southern Green Shield bug, sitting on a yew fruit
Plants recorded
Recognised
Verbena bonariensis
Sylvanian Family (personal common name) Greek horehound Ballota pseudodictamnus
An aster with white flowers: Aster divaricatus or Eurybia divaricata ? (is this a plant that has recently been split from the aster genus?)
A kind of persicaria: Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’
Yew, Taxus baccata
Box, Buxus sempervirens
Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
A geranium
A kind of cultivated knapweed?
Not recognised
A tall flower spike (now dried out to spiky round seed heads) coming out of a rosette of long serrated edge leaves, a mid green, smooth
I think it is Eryngium eburneum
A very tall grass over 2m in height with spiky bright rust coloured seed heads the grass stems are round and hard and a dark green – it may be a rush, rather than grass.
Perhaps it is a large cape rush: Chondropetalum tectorum
A kind of cultivated knapweed?Up close of Verbena flowers progressing into seedsVerbena full habit, quite messy, hard to capture in isolation as it layers itself over the other plants, a straggly habitSylvanian Family (personal common name) Greek horehound Ballota pseudodictamnusAn aster with white flowers that turn pinker and more full (or fluffy) as they mature.A kind of persicaria: Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’the hedging of yew and box, the darker green areas are yew in this photoOne of the plants I couldn’t ID to start with. A tall flower spike (now dried out to spiky round seed heads) coming out of a rosette of long serrated edged leaves, a mid green, smooth (it’s Eryngium eburneum) The second plant I couldn’t ID. A very tall grass over 2m in height with spiky bright rust coloured seed heads the grass stems are round and hard and a dark green – perhaps it is a rush, rather than grass Perhaps it is a large cape rush: Chondropetalum tectorum
Weeds
Bindweed, small, possibly hedge? False strawberry Horsetail / Mares tail (which is a living fossil)
Dead and dried plant material collected on site. From top clockwise: Yew stem looks like it’s been cut off during hedge trimming and gotten stuck in the hedge; seeds from the tall rush, dried out parts of Greek Horehound and a seed from inside that; a small piece of Box that looks like it might have had blight; a stem of Verbena and some of the smaller seed carrying material gently pulled away.
At 10am someone started playing music in CDY, as in for public consumption through a fixed speaker, unclear where exactly it is coming from. It is pop music, sounds like a woman singing, easy going, inconspicuous, seems contemporary, I don’t recognise it.
People are passing by almost continuously, some stop to look over the wall at the canal below and the trees ahead. These seem to mostly be tourists ie. they do not seem in a hurry to be somewhere nor seem to be exercising. Others walk dogs, jog, drink coffee with headphones in, talk on the phone, chat amongst themselves, some stop to take photos of themselves or of the people they are with or a plant or the view of the canal. Many of the tourists are in pairs of one male, one female, they are mostly older, let’s say 55+.
There is a very small amount of trash (for London) on the site: some cigarette butts on the ground and some fallen into the spaces where there isn’t any firm grouting between the pavers, a chewing gum wrapper by the brick wall (silver, Extra brand) and some chewed gum near to the wrapper, a stack of cigarette filters in the garden bed behind bench B along with some discarded filters and small piece of thin plastic, stone fruit pits, a few pieces of cracked open sunflower seed shells in the yew hedge between the two benches.
These verbenas are well established, they have hard woody stems at the base, around 1cm in diameter. They have a huge numbe of flowering heads—makes their form quite dominant, its quite sculptural perhaps particularly at this early autumn time when the flowers are near to done, and the seeding parts look like upward motion and the leggy height of the verbena’s habit helps to exaggerate a sort of yearning stance. They move gently in the breeze and even when still they look like movement, like growth, striving or something like that.
I talk to some tourists, give them directions to (10.30am) to get down to the canal. They are New Zealanders, I recognise their accents.
