Mel 🍂🍄

The black flower of a Midnight Sky hyacinth

The black flowers of a Midnight Sky hyacinth

Some of my gothic hyacinths for Friday the 13th 🥰🖤 🌱 #flowersonfriday #bloomscrolling #fridaythe13th

The black flower of a Midnight Sky hyacinth

The black flowers of a Midnight Sky hyacinth

Some of my gothic hyacinths for Friday the 13th 🥰🖤 🌱 #flowersonfriday #bloomscrolling #fridaythe13th

A dark purple hellebore flower with black speckles

Crocus flowers

Lots of purple crocus flowers

A panda crocus flower

One word to describe my garden this week? Maybe “purple” is a good one? Hellebores and crocus are still going strong and I forgot to take a picture of my hyacinths but they’re coming out too #GardensHour 🌱

A dark purple hellebore flower with black speckles

Crocus flowers

Lots of purple crocus flowers

A panda crocus flower

One word to describe my garden this week? Maybe “purple” is a good one? Hellebores and crocus are still going strong and I forgot to take a picture of my hyacinths but they’re coming out too #GardensHour 🌱

A three image collage of book related pictures

Happy World Book Day! A little look at my constant companion (I’m working on some very special folklore writing right now), my two current reads and my stack for the rest of the year #booksky #worldbookday

A round black mushroom called King Alfred’s Cakes growing on a log

A cluster of round black mushrooms known as King Alfred’s Cakes growing on a log

King Alfred’s cakes! Folklore claims Alfred was hiding in the Somerset marches and met a peasant woman. She asked him to help her bake but he was busy planning his counterattack against the Vikings and the cakes burnt! She was so angry she scolded the King #FolkloreSunday #fungifriends

A round black mushroom called King Alfred’s Cakes growing on a log

A cluster of round black mushrooms known as King Alfred’s Cakes growing on a log

King Alfred’s cakes! Folklore claims Alfred was hiding in the Somerset marches and met a peasant woman. She asked him to help her bake but he was busy planning his counterattack against the Vikings and the cakes burnt! She was so angry she scolded the King #FolkloreSunday #fungifriends

A little update on these panda crocus because it’s actually sunny this morning so they’ve opened up a bit more (did you know that crocus are diurnal so they close up at night or in lower light levels) 🌱

A long line of heart shaped bleeding heart flowers

A black and white crocus

The loveliest flower in my garden (you can’t get more romantic than a bleeding heart) and something I love in my garden right now (“panda” crocus which are the darkest variety I’ve ever found and look like little humbugs) 🌱 🖤🩷 #GardensHour

The frozen foliage of a black Heuchera

A window covered in icy glass

Wishing everyone a lovely Valentine’s Day. Was a very chilly start here (frozen like my heart 😂) but at least it’s not raining! 🌱

Just because I’ve not mentioned it for a while I occasionally write about history, myth and folklore for magazines like the brilliant Garden Folk Magazine. You can find me in the February issue talking about snowdrops even more! If that’s your sort of thing 👍 gardenfolkmag.com #FolkloreSunday

A bunch of white snowdrop flowers

Gorgeous to see some of the “Candlemass Bells” we planted coming up again in the churchyard. They get that nickname because today (40 days after Christmas) is commonly when they’re flourishing! #GardensHour 🌱

The entrance area to the Dinosaur ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

A full size dinosaur skeleton in the queue line for the Dinosaur ride

Goodnight, sweet Dinosaur. May flights of pterodactyls wing you to your rest. Was lucky enough to say goodbye to this iconic ride 10 months ago when we were last in Florida. Animal Kingdom won’t be the same without you 💔

The inside of a snowdrop flower

A snowdrop flower

Does anyone else enjoy a graveyard snowdrop? And did you know that they are actually sometimes known as “corpses in shrouds”. It’s also unlucky to bring them inside the house unless you pick 13 of them #FlowersOnFriday 🌱

#FolkloreSunday Blessed Imbolc my dears! Hope you’ve had a magical day 🌱🥰

The inside of a snowdrop flower

A snowdrop flower

Does anyone else enjoy a graveyard snowdrop? And did you know that they are actually sometimes known as “corpses in shrouds”. It’s also unlucky to bring them inside the house unless you pick 13 of them #FlowersOnFriday 🌱

It’s a really lovely one! 😍🖤

I’m in the north west of the UK on the coast 👍👍

A small pale yellow, almost white, daffodil flower

A very dark purple hellebore flower with black freckles on the petals and a yellow centre

First daffodil of the year is out! I also got another hellebore last week since I didn’t actually have one with black freckles. You can’t have too many hellebores at this time of year! 🌱 #GardensHour

My Zelda anniversary Epic expansion announcement tinfoil hat is fully on my head now because they’ve deliberately confirmed this officially during Pokémon’s 30th year. February is right around the corner! 😂😂

Labelled illustrations of common UK garden birds on a deep teal background. Text at the centre reads 'garden birds in the UK'. The birds shown are: coal tit, goldfinch, collared dove, robin, wren, chaffinch (male), blue tit, blackbird (male), house sparrow (male), magpie, long-tailed tit, greenfinch, starling, dunnock, woodpigeon and great tit.

The #BigGardenBirdwatch starts today! Which of these species are you hoping to spot?

Head on over to RSPB to find out more and take part in the world's largest wildlife survey.

Taking part in #BigGardenBirdwatch today or over the weekend?

Head over to our dedicated BGBW feed for all the birdy chat, sightings and joy!

PS Yes, of course we want to see your tea-and-biscuit set-ups ☕🍪👇

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Think it really depends on the ride and its history/heritage. If it’s old and there aren’t many similar rides operating anymore or it’s a ride that opened with a park I love to see those maintained and restored rather than replaced. But it’s also nice for parks to get new exciting rides too!

The velvet plant which has dark foliage covered in bright purple fuzzy hair

My response to those accounts that post fake goth plant content and get loads of attention is always to find more real life goth plant content 😂👍 this my friends is the gorgeous velvet plant (gynura auranatica) and it wasn’t made by a computer 🌱 #FlowersOnFriday

The velvet plant which has dark foliage covered in bright purple fuzzy hair

My response to those accounts that post fake goth plant content and get loads of attention is always to find more real life goth plant content 😂👍 this my friends is the gorgeous velvet plant (gynura auranatica) and it wasn’t made by a computer 🌱 #FlowersOnFriday

The purple freckled bloom of a hellebore flower

A tiny snowdrop flower bud preparing to pop up in the leaf litter

Totally forgot what day it was yesterday so I missed Gardens Hour! 😭😂 here’s two lovely examples of springtime toxicity anyway. Snowdrops are starting to wake up now and we all love a pretty but poisonous flower don’t we 🥰 🌱 #bloomscrolling

Just to rock the Mack boat ride even more it’s the 40th anniversary of the Zelda franchise this year…just putting that out there 😂👍

Yes! It definitely is so I have actually been looking for a darker potted iris in person for at least a year now but I’ve never seen one, as I prefer to buy plants in person so there’s less of a risk of them being wrong 😂 I do think you can get hold of them potted online but I’ve not risked it yet

I don’t actually! I should look at getting one. I did buy a packet of ryzomes a few years ago from a garden centre that said they were Black Dragon bearded iris but sadly when they flowered they weren’t that variety at all! So now I’ve got some lovely iris but they’re not black ones 😂😂

Yes those cornflowers are so nice I’ve grown them before as well! Lovely and dark and quite easy to grow 😍😍