Foxgloves 2024 and 2025

Foxgloves are wonderful flowers that come and go on Littleworth Common.  I don't propose to dwell too long on the reason for their name but I found this on Wikipedia:

The name is recorded in Old English as 'foxes glofe/glofa' or 'fox's glove'. Over time, folk myths obscured the literal origins of the name, insinuating that foxes wore the flowers on their paws to silence their movements as they stealthily hunted their prey. The woody hillsides where the foxes made their dens were often covered with the toxic flowers. Some of the more menacing names, such as "witch's glove", reference the toxicity of the plant.

In 2024 Littleworth Common was going through an interesting time with proposals to turn the 1832 Jolly Woodman pub into a Hindu Place of Learning (a.k.a. Temple).In a moment of fantasy I saw some similarity between what was going on and the stealthy movements of a fox.

I tried to visualise this ... My mother had acquired a stuffed fox many years ago so I wondered if I could see what this would look like with gloves like the flower.

I cannot really imagine a fox on Littleworth Common stalking his prey dressed like this!

So let's look at the real foxgloves of Litteworth Common from 2024 and 2025.

Looking wonderful early in the morning sunlight.

Even better close-up.

And in different colours and different shades of colours.

Foxgloves don't necessarily grow every year and 2026 was not a good year for foxgloves on the Common. Strangely we had almost as many foxgloves this year in our own garden to the South and West of the Common.

I have been accused of playing with AI in some photos and videos. These wonderful flowers do not need AI to make them look good. I was intrigued, however, to read in the marketing details for the Jolly Woodman that it had a bear garden. Was this a misprint, or not?

More about the future of the Jolly Woodman soon ...