Page 69 - NT 2022 Almanac

May is the month for wild flowers. It seems as though nature finds any excuse to sprinkle the roadsides, paths, woodlands and parks with colour. Even the most boring journeys are made more enjoyable by looking out of the window at the burst of colour.
Why not take your nature notebook with you and note down or draw what you see? If you have permission from the owner of the flowers, you can also pick one or two and press them when you get home – but be careful not to pick too many as bees and other insects need flowers for food.
How to Press Flowers
You don’t need a special flower press. You can simply
use paper and a very heavy book!
1 Take some sheets of newspaper and the biggest, heaviest book that you can find.
2 Lay the flowers on the newspaper, opening them out as much as you can without breaking them.
3 Put another sheet of newspaper on top of the flowers.
4 Open the heavy book near the end.
5 Put the newspaper sheets into the book.
6 Close it and make sure the heaviest part of the book
is on top of the flowers.
7 Leave for two or three weeks.
8 The flowers will have dried out and be pressed very flat.
They will be very delicate so take extra care when lifting them off the newspaper.
Use your dried flowers to make bookmarks or even add them to homemade paper.
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