Thanks for the appreciative comments. You shouldn’t worry about comparing your own photos to mine and finding your own lacking in some way or other. Just enjoy your hobby. That’s what I do when looking at other people’s photos. I never worry myself as to whether mine or someone else’s are ‘better’; simply admiring another person’s work is enough for me!

thanks for the ID. Seabrooke, from The Marvellous in Nature had already ID’ed it for me, but it’s always nice to have a second opinion.

You have some rather stunning photos on your own blog, I must say. Rather puts mine to shame. I shall have to try a little harder!

I had a feeling the pink flower might be a mallow, it looks very much like one in a post at Hagbourne Wildlife recently. I’m going to have to get myself a good field-guide, I need to know more about what I’m pointing the camera at!

Your spikey plant is teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, a plant native to Europe and introduced to North America. It has the extremely rare flowering pattern of starting in the middle and then progressing in two bands toward the top and bottom (most flowers start either at the top or the bottom and only go one way). It’s a biennial, each plant living only two years, but their seeds are very sturdy and it grows very easily, so it often pops up in disturbed habitat like roadsides and fields.

The blue “wild flower” is Viper’s Bugloss, Echium vulgare, another European native that’s been introduced to North America. Like teasel, it also grows easily and quickly in areas that have been disturbed, such as roadsides.

The daisies are actually a type of fleabane, maybe Daisy Fleabane though I’m not sure. Historically the dried flower heads were used to help rid a house of fleas, hence the common name fleabane.

The pink flower is a type of mallow, but I’m not sure which just off the top of my head.