Dusky cranesbill

Geranium phaeum

Known in Yorkshire and Lancashire as 'Mournful Widow' apparently..

Yes, as you can see, I've been having fun this morning.  I wanted this to have the feeling of an illustration from an old field guide. The little wildflower is one I was going to say I'd never seen before, but I reckon 'never noticed' is probably nearer the truth.  It's ?engineering, ?architecture, is superb but it is tiny - approx 18mm across on the fully opened flower (bottom left).  This got me thinking that perhaps we can be dismissive of wildflowers or 'weeds', because they are made for attracting tiny creatures, not great lummocking humans.

Anyway, this was found on a neighbour's front grass.  He was about to mow so I asked if I could pull a bit.  I'm hoping it will set seed and I'll be able to infiltrate it into my grass too.

Not a lot else to say about it.  The life-cycle of the flowers is incredibly short - a few hours.  When I picked it the top two flowers looked like the bottom left one and the bottom right one had its petal laid back like the top two here.  It really blooms and fades that quickly.

So, TinyTuesday.  Bealtine is the theme, and of all the wildflowers near where I live it's the cranesbills (geraniums) that most signal summer to me - not the first flowers to come out but one of the first to greet the warmer weather.  So many thanks to freespiral for hosting with this lovely theme.

Finally, thank you for being so kind about by medical grumbles.  It's very cheering to have such lovely friends.  The Doc is phoning soon so the waiting is practically over - phew.

Results for WildflowerWeek21_05 will come out tomorrow.  Have a happy evening (when we get there)  xx