Wild flowers at the start of April
Thursday, April 05, 2018
By Monday afternoon it finally stopped teaming it down with rain and we braved it for a walk around 4pm. As it turned out not another drop fell for at least an hour while we were out. The light and ambiance may have been sorely lacking but beggars can't be choosers so with camera in hand out we went. The coltsfoots above was snapped in Yorkshire; having never seen one before I exclaimed something to the effect of oh that's weird, some daisies have gone wrong although I stand corrected having consulted my wild flowers pocket guide book. It is part of the daisy family but it's very much a perfectly formed coltsfoot.
Below, primroses which are now adding beautiful bursts of yellow here and there.
Dead nettles and the minute white flowers I cannot identify...Lesser celandine which shall occupy the riverbanks for the next few months.
Dog's mercury above, some kind of white violet below. I'd not noticed it before. It looks like it's struggling to be seen under the weight of the other foliage
White dead nettle and a zillion stickyweed. Below, speedwell about to flower. I cannot identify which species as both Germander and Common Field Speedwell look far more solid purple than the beautiful blotchy white and blue I think these are.
Is it ironic to consider some wildflowers worthless weeds while praising the others to the skies? I hat nettles as much as anyone else who's felt their bite but ragwort-esque types too test my passion. This tiny yellow flowering specimen could be ragwort or pineappleweed but without further investigation I shan't know. The violets or field pansies below look like someone planted them near their boundary - they don't strike me as all that authentic.
Kestrel was posing for a short while in which I managed to snap this picture.
The deer has a penchant for my tender garden shoots unfortunately and the muscari fell victim almost as soon as they made it out of the soil. A scant few flowers will bloom and this, the first is just about ready.
The blossom is starting to bloom around our way but slowly; there are no signs yet on some of the trees that we witnessed dripping in it last year.
Have you taken a walk to take stock of early spring action?
Take care,
Sophie
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