Catherine Drea is a visual artist, writer and blogger who lives and works in rural County Waterford. Catherine writes a column called As I See It for the Waterford News & Star and her first book Solace-life, loss and the healing power of nature, was published in the Autumn of 2022 by The O'Brien Press. It is available no in all good . . .
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Wild foxgloves on the lane
Wild Foxgloves appear in a new place each year, especially some old patch that has been recently cleared. A corner of rocky earth suddenly gives birth to an abundance of the most exotic of our wildflowers. They nestle under trees and festoon the hedgerows. They peep over the tallest grasses and parade their purply pink . . .
~Another evening amongst the wild Foxgloves~
I've spent many years now photographing the stunning and exotic wild Foxgloves (Digitalis Purpurea) on the lane here. So when I started this blog 2 years ago I named it after them. A regular feature of childhood games, magical drawings in fairy stories and romantic cottage gardens, Foxgloves are an annual blissful . . .
Foxglove time!
Ireland's most spectacular wild flower is blooming prolifically on the lane today. The Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, An Lus Mór, reaching up to 150 cm high and hosting up to 75 individual flowers on each stem is everywhere. I remember so well as a child putting the little flowers on each finger as faery hats or . . .
Be a bit more friendly towards the wild things
I know the neighbours despair of my nettle border and my overwhelming gorse mountain but I can't resist including them all in my mixed up wild, cultivated garden. There are so many parts of the country where the verges and the hedgerows are devoid of life. Grass grows, but the diversity that is natural to . . .
