<p>&nbsp;</p> <p>When OH discovered that the forecast for the first week of Wimbledon was good he decided it was a great week for a break. Could I find anything on-line? Now we do not do "abroad" so it was the UK I was confined to. We do hotels for short breaks but for longer times we prefer the freedom of self-catering.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>It was the Wednesday he first mooted the idea and by next morning he had pencilled in ideas on a list of ideal locations. These boiled down to&nbsp; Northumberland, Norfolk /Suffolk, Herefordshire and Essex. I emailed a number of possible owners of suitable properties and awaited replies - did I mention this was Friday lunchtime by now? Miraculously we had seven out of ten replied -&nbsp;but only two had a vacancy. Still, we only needed one cottage and so we spent the last week in North Devon. Yes, I know it wasn't on the famous list but this year just everyone is holidaying in the UK - and given recent weather why not?</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>You will note I mentioned this was a self-catering break. When the children were small I always packed all the food for the week to ensure their favourites were available but recently we have been happy enough to pick things up locally as and when as it were. But the big decision to travel was arrived at after the weekly shop so this meant taking all the fresh food we had bought with us and catering accordingly. Surprisingly we coped and came back with very little. We had some unusual meal combinations perhaps but they added to the fun.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>I took plenty of photos, of course. Just when did I manage to spread from the maximum of three reels of 36 exposures for a week long holiday to taking over six hundred digital images - many of them hopefully to find their way into print along with the ideas they spawned. We have met some very friendly and helpful people over the week who have not batted an eyelid when we asked to move a mobile display from their doorway&nbsp;- but have been keen to ask afterwards why I wanted it done. The answer, of course, was to photograph the decorative tiled doorway or the inscription in one if it included the name of the shop. Tiles is an area I have photographed for several years and these have included church tiles, tiled doorways and shop fronts and tiled pubs. In Devon we were able to add tiled street names to our collection, each letter on a separate tile. As soon as people realised what we were photographing they were keen to point out more so our short walks around towns and villages often became quite lengthy treks.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Devon lanes have often vertical sides and except on major routes the dreaded verge trimming seems almost unknown. We travelled lanes near our cottage where the hedge touched both sides of the car and the flowers were a delight.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>We had a great time, met some lovely people and saw many things for the first time but I have to say I do hope next time we are going away I get a bit more notice. Last minute hotel breaks are fine - just throw in a few clothes and a toothbrush and everything else is catered for - but, much as I enjoy self-catering, it does take planning to be really relaxing!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">&nbsp;</p>

<p>By rights I should hate this time of year and especially the plants that choose to flower at this time as I suffer from hay fever and grass and tree pollens are the chief culprits. However, I find the colour of our wayside verges a very uplifting sight.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Although the spread of motorways and dual carriageways have lead to large swathes of the countryside being lost the verges offer a sanctuary for many of our wild flowers in particular. There have been&nbsp; planting programmes to reintroduce such species as cowslips but others are quite capable of colonising any disturbed patches of earth by themselves, the most successful probably being the poppy. In spring the motorways are often brightened by cowslips and primroses followed around May/June time by the large white Marguerite daisies and then the red of the poppies. The seeds can lay dormant for decades resulting in a fresh flush of colour any time the soil is disturbed. My mother once paid a gardener to clear her back garden and use a weed killer before seeding the area for a lawn. The following year she had a traditional hay meadow rather than a lawn with the poppy the dominant feature. She just would not believe he had used the weed killer as she had requested. She had a great display of butterflies that year too.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>In May on our country roads here in the south the cow parsley fringes the roadside with its delicate lace-like flower often called Queen Anne's lace. After this come the buttercups and red and white clover. In Dorset last week we were struck by the large number of foxgloves and red campion that together with the buttercups gave a really colourful display. This time last year we were in Cornwall and we saw similar species in bloom there at this time.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Soon though, in our area, the edges will be cut back, the roadside mown for traffic safety. In fact this could be achieved by simply cutting the extreme edge and a wider spread at corners and junctions but although an experiment trialling this happened locally one year we seem back to the wholesale destruction again now.</p>

<p>&nbsp;As we drove to our nearest town to shop this morning I spotted a number of sections of the roadside that had burst into colour as the latest wild flowers reached their flowering season. I noted the locations of especially good patches of meadow sweet, red and white clover and hogweed and aimed to pop back and take some photos later today. Ideal day for photography as it is dry but not sunny.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>The roadside has become much more colourful over the past week with yellow of silverweed and lady's bedstraw mixing nicely with vivid displays of blue meadow cranesbill, the wild equivalent of your garden geraniums. The hedges themselves are now dripping with elderflower heads, all creamy white with the more delicate dog roses between. It was an uplifting sight.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Groceries replenished we made the return journey and we were soon stuck behind a tractor. You've guessed it. The verge was being given another trim and all the flowers were being decapitated once more. My only consolation is that flowers, unlike animals, survive this treatment and live to give another show later in the year.</p>