Seona Anderson 23/04/2024 Seona Anderson 23/04/2024

AZURED HAREBELL

Shakespeare Species, AZURED HAREBELL: I’ll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack… the azured harebell like thy veins. Happy Birthday Shakespeare. The British Bluebell is in full bloom on Shakespeare’s Birthday.

Seona Anderson 22/04/2024 Seona Anderson 22/04/2024

CORAL

Shakespeare Species Quote the Day, CORAL: Coral is far more red than her lips’ red. There are 1000s of Coral species including the Red Coral of jewellery. The UK has 1 reef-forming Coral which has colonies up to 4000 years old in the cold waters of Scotland.

Seona Anderson 21/04/2024 Seona Anderson 21/04/2024

WEASEL

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, WEASEL: I can suck melancholy out of a song as a weasel suck eggs. Weasel’s the smallest carnivore in the UK gets a bad press in Shakespeare.

Seona Anderson 20/04/2024 Seona Anderson 20/04/2024

BROOM

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, BROOM: and thy broom groves, whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, being lass-lorn. The vibrant yellow of broom is another sign that spring has arrived.

Seona Anderson 19/04/2024 Seona Anderson 19/04/2024

CROWN IMPERIAL

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, CROWN IMPERIAL: bold oxlips and crown imperial; lilies of all kinds - O, these I lack to make you garlands of. This stunning flower is native from Turkey to the Himalaya & was a high status garden plant.

Seona Anderson 19/04/2024 Seona Anderson 19/04/2024

HERRING

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, HERRING: If manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. Herring continue to be an important & valued food source in the Atlantic & beyond.

Seona Anderson 19/04/2024 Seona Anderson 19/04/2024

BLOSSOM

Shakespeare Species, BLOSSOM: But, poor, old man, thou prun’st a rotten tree which cannot so much as a blossom yield. Blossom, the act of blooming or the flowers of trees including fruit trees, symbolises youth, the promise of fruifulness, innocence and beauty.

Seona Anderson 16/04/2024 Seona Anderson 16/04/2024

HALCYON (Kingfisher)

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, HALCYON (Kingfisher): revenge, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks with every gust and vary of their masters. Shakespeare is repeating the old myth that dead Kingfishers, suspended, pointed in the direction of the wind.

Seona Anderson 16/04/2024 Seona Anderson 16/04/2024

FOX

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, FOX: for treason is trusted like a fox, never so tame, so cherished and locked up, will have a wild trick of his ancestors. Foxes epitomise cunning and deceit for Shakespeare.

Seona Anderson 14/04/2024 Seona Anderson 14/04/2024

KITE

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, KITE: Is Beaufort termed a kite? Where are his talons? Red Kites were persecuted almost to extinction in the UK but are now thriving in many parts of the country.

Seona Anderson 13/04/2024 Seona Anderson 13/04/2024

LADY-SMOCKS

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, LADY-SMOCKS: And lady-smocks all silver-white…do paint the meadows with delight. The Lady-smocks or Cuckooflower is a beautiful spring flower which feeds Orange-tip butterflies & used to be used as an edible spring green by people.

Seona Anderson 12/04/2024 Seona Anderson 12/04/2024

RAT

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, RAT: What if my house be troubled with a rat, and I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats to have it baned? The Black Rat was the species familiar to Shakespearean households.

Seona Anderson 12/04/2024 Seona Anderson 12/04/2024

MARTLET (MARTIN)

Shakespeare Species Martlet (Martin): the guest of summer, the temple-haunting martlet does approve. Shakespeare demonstrates real affection for this migratory bird even if Banquo will rue his words…

Seona Anderson 12/04/2024 Seona Anderson 12/04/2024

NEWT

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, NEWT: Engenders the black toad and adder blue, the gilded newt and eyeless venomed worm. The magnificent Great Crested Newt is a priority protected species in the UK.

Seona Anderson 09/04/2024 Seona Anderson 09/04/2024

PIKE

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, PIKE: If the young dace be bait for the old pike. Pike are cunning ambush hunters & were food in Shakespeare’s world.

Seona Anderson 08/04/2024 Seona Anderson 08/04/2024

CHALICED Flower

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day: And Phoebus gins arise, his steeds to water at those springs on chaliced flowers that lies; there is no definite identification but Globe Flowers are a possibility.

Seona Anderson 07/04/2024 Seona Anderson 07/04/2024

WATERFLIES

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, WATERFLIES: Ah, how the poor world is pestered with such waterflies, diminutives of nature. Shakespeare intends this as an insult but Waterflies such as the Mayflies have complex & fascinating life cycles.

Seona Anderson 06/04/2024 Seona Anderson 06/04/2024

Hyrcanian Beast

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, Hyrcanian Beast: The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’ Hyrcanian beast. There Tigers were the symbol of merciless killers for Shakespeare, however humans hunted the Caspian Tiger to extinction in the 1970s.

Seona Anderson 05/04/2024 Seona Anderson 05/04/2024

COWSLIP

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, COWSLIP: On her left breast a cinque-spotted mole like the crimson drops i’ th’ bottom of a cowslip. Shakespeare uses this tiny detail of the interior of the smallest flower as part of his metaphor.

Seona Anderson 04/04/2024 Seona Anderson 04/04/2024

OSTRICH

Shakespeare Species Quote of the Day, OSTRICH: But I’ll make thee eat iron like an ostrich and swallow my sword like a pin. There was widespread medieval & early modern belief that Ostriches ate iron.