Under/over the boardwalk

I  took an amble around Goodwick Moor, a marshland nature reserve that lies between the beach and the rising land behind. The boardwalk through the reedbed takes you to a private world, surround-sounded by the swishing of massed stalks, with only occasional glimpses of the bay, the harbour and the distant Irish ferry readying to depart.

A heady scent could only have come from Marsh Bedstraw (related to Woodruff and other odiferous Galiums) which was growing in frothy abundance along with Marsh Valerian standing upright and angular amongst it. But lower down, and dangling over the boardwalk's wooden slats, I spotted an old favourite I had forgotten about: Marsh Cinquefoil a curious five-petalled plant "hanging its sultry purple flowers in the tangled vegetation of a bog" as Geoffrey Grigson so aptly wrote - although I see the colour more as claret. Also called Purple Marshlocks, it's related to the strawberry plant as you can see from the central structure of the flower.

Further on I had my first sighting of the giant dragonfly created by Gideon Petersen from the Art Afoot town trail team.. He's the same artist who made the impressive metal sea horse I blipped in February.