We are grateful to Pauline Entwisle who in January 1998 supplied the photograph below,  of her friend Mrs Houben, of New Malden, Surrey, as a child of 4½ and her brother, 6¼, with their May garland, which incorporated her favourite teddy bear, in the village of Werrington, now part of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, in May 1921.

This item is posted in memory of Pauline, who died recently at the age of 91; she was a long-term  and valued volunteer at the Natural History Museum, where she helped in the Wildlife Garden, and contributed to its popular Nettle Days, and was a proficient plant-mounter.

Sunflowers, Helianthus anuus, placed in front of reliquary containing a ‘well-authenticated’ fragment of the shroud of St Cuthbert (c.634-687), in St Cuthbert’s [Anglo-Catholic] Church, Philbeach Gardens, Earls Court, London, on 4 September 2024, for ‘High Mass and Procession of the Relics’ to mark the Feast of the Translation of the Relics of St Cuthbert.

August 2024 was another unexceptional month, with 10 items of information being received from 10 informants, eight of them new.  Thus the Archive contains 9397 items of information from 3407 informants.

Four walks were led, and visits were paid to Brompton Cemetery for a service to commemorate Anthony of Sourozh, Egton Bridge for the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Society’s Annual Show, All Saints’ Margaret Street for their Assumptiontide service, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Ennismore Gardens for their service to mark the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God, and Ipswich to attend the first day of the Folklore Society’s 18th Legendary Weekend which took Water in Legend and Tradition as its theme.

19 posts were added to the website’s blog page.

Users of the website are reminded that roy@plant-lore.com is currently not working, so all correspondence should be addressed to vickery330@btinternet.com

On Wednesday 28 August 2024 the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition of Mother of God, in Ennismore Gardens, London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, held a Divine Liturgy, starting at 9.30 a.m., to celebrate the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God.  This service is the Orthodox equivalent of Roman Catholic Feast of the Assumption, celebrated on 15 August (see post of 12 August 2024).

Photograph taken at c.1 p.m.  Comments appreciated, please send them to vickery330@btinternet.com

Two annual events coming up:

Sunday 1 September:  two walks as contributions to Friends of Brompton Cemetery – Tree Walk, starting at 11.30 a.m., and Wild Flower Walk, starting at 1.30 p.m.

Report:  Although the other walks and tours attracted large attendances, the two plant walks were much less popular, with 10 participants joining the tree walk, and 6 the wild flower walk.  The latter also suffered from there being very few wild flowers to examine and discuss.  None-the-less, participants seem to have enjoyed the hour spent examining trees, and the 40 minutes discussing wild flowers.

Saturday 7 September:  Herbal Heritage walk around St Leonard’s churchyard, Streatham, starting at 11 a.m.; a contribution to the Lambeth Local History Fair. Fully booked.

Report: 20 people had booked, and about that number gathered under a yew, Taxus baccata, near the church’s entrance.  Here we discussed the edibility of yew arils, before slowly moving around the churchyard discussing many of the useful plants growing there.  Most of these were native, or ones which have been long naturalized.  However, our final stop was to examine New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax, introduced to Britain in 1789, in the hope that it would be a useful fibre-plant, but while it was grown on the Isle of Man and the Isles of Scilly, it failed to be more widely cultivated, although in recent years it has gained popularity as an ornamental.

For further information see the Events page on this website.

Images:  upper, Oregon, or big-leaf, maple, Acer macrophyllum, native to western North America, growing in Brompton Cemetery, and mentioned by Elinor Wiltshire in her ‘Uncommon trees in London’ in The London Naturalist 46, pp.37-66, 1997; inset, St Leonard’s churchyard, both September 2024.

Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) placed on plinth of statue of St Volodymyr, patron saint of Ukraine, at the junction of Holland Park Avenue with Holland Park, London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 25 August 2024, the day after Independence Day of Ukraine.

Photograph of statue of St Volodymyr in Toronto, Canada, attached to London statue, 25 August 2024.

Our monthly walk starting at the Woodfield Pavilion on Tooting Common, London Borough of Lambeth, will take place on Thursday 29 August and have Signs of Autumn? as its theme.  All welcome, meet at the Pavilion at 11 a.m.; booking unnecessary.

Report:  Eight people turned up on a warm and sunny morning to spend about an hour wandering around the area and discussing some of the plants found there.  We started by examining Jersey cudweed, and then examined European pear rust, orange patches caused by the fungus Gymnosporangium sabinae on pear, Pyrus sp., leaves.  Plant galls became a feature of the walk, and we examined five species on pedunculate oak, Quercus robur, and cauliflower gall-mite, Aceria fraxinivora, on ash, Fraxinus excelsior.  We also enjoyed sowbread, Cyclamen hederifolium, of which there are thriving colonies in the area.

Image:  Jersey cudweed, Laphangium luteoalbum, growing in tarmac outside the Pavilion; formerly rare, Jersey cudweed is now common in paved areas throughout London, August 2024.

Advertisement in Metro of 20 August 2024:

‘Thomas Kinkade, Winter Splendour, ILLUMINATED Always in Bloom Tabletop Tree  … a beautiful tree is the heart of every home during the holidays  … accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity and our famous 365-day-money-back guarantee, this edition is available for just 5 interest-free instalments of £35.99 – that’s only £179.95 (plus £9.99 S&S).’

Photographs and flowers placed opposite the Venezuelan Embassy, in Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, following the deaths of protestors after the re-election – widely believed to be falsified – of Nicolás Maduro as president, on 28 July 2023.

Photographed 19 August 2024.

Another Trichromatic P.C. by J. Welch & Sons: ‘Ivy [Hedera helix] – I cling to thee’.

Posted in Whitby, North Yorkshire, to an address in the same town, October 1906.