Spring 2017

Walking the dogs and I realised spring is definitely here.

Wood anemone

The equinox passed a couple of weeks ago, the air is filled with birdsong, some recognisable (teacher-teacher), some not, and though the broadleaves still stand bare, they have buds aplenty and the ground is carpeted with bright dog’s mercury in flower. Bracken is lifting its curled stems as I presume its ancestors did for hundreds of millions of years before there were any flowering plants.

Coltsfoot

Winter’s snowdrops and crocuses have gone, and the daisies and broom are expanding their numbers. The bright green leaves of bluebells mark where the explosion of blue will come in the next weeks, and where I saw just one bluebell a few days ago, now many are lifting their unopened flowers above the ground. The whites of wood anemone and wood sorrel are coming into their best and the first wood avens are in flower. Dandelions are making an effort and some have reached the clock stage already.

Lesser celandine

There are the yellows of wild daffodil, lesser celandine, creeping buttercups, golden saxifrage and primrose but the pinks are only just starting, the pink purslane and red campion growing within a few inches of each other. (PS I forgot the hairy bittercress and groundsel)

A few days ago I had walked off the path to investigate a hint of purple, to find a few violets. A couple of days later the dog violets are everywhere.

Violets

Ahh, Spring.

Cuck-oo

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