Nature
The beautiful ornamental cherry trees at the West Street end of Ryde Cemetery are now in full bloom and as the month progresses, gusts of wind will blow the petals like pink snowflakes across the road, the cemetery main carriageway and blanket nearby graves.
Spring is here! Well not officially until 21 March but a walk through Ryde Cemetery on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon says otherwise.
Holly is one of the most distinctive of our evergreen shrubs and trees. It is easily identifiable by its waxy, spiky leaves and clusters of scarlet red berries.
Members of the IW Garden Trust recently carried out a survey of the trees and shrubs in Ryde Cemetery.
At the entrance to the Cemetery Lodge there is a beautiful display of Michaelmas daisies. These flowers belong to the aster family and aster comes from the Ancient Greek word meaning star, referring to the shape of the flower head.
The Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta) is a common and regular migrant to the UK at this time of year.
It has been a long, cold winter but at last the Cemetery is showing signs of Spring.
This summer has been perfect weather for slugs and snails, many of which live in the cemetery. Most of them seem to have migrated to the garden of The Lodge and have descimated our vegetable crops!
It was a bitter cold day on Saturday 28 January but 8 brave folk joined us for the Big Garden Birdwatch in Ryde Cemetery.