A Springtime Walk

Today is the Spring Equinox and to celebrate B Baggins and I went for a walk with his friend Bertie and my friend P. This is a walk I haven't done before, it crosses farmland and there are ancient hedgerows and ancient woodland along the way. It's a much more sheltered environment than Blackamoor. We saw a lot of pussy willow and it looked lovely in the sunlight. Some of the photos that follow will be clearer if clicked on to enlarge them.

As we dropped into the woodland we were amazed to see that there were already one or two bluebells flowering.

After a steep climb out of the wood the path followed a hedge which was a mix of hawthorn and blackthorn and here and there the blackthorn was beginning to flower.

Mostly it was just odd twigs but every so often there was a small section covered in the snow white blossom. In a week or so it should be a wonderful sight and I shall try and go again and take a photograph of the whole hedgerow.

There were little patches of celandine flowering in the shelter of the hedge - it's a member of the buttercup family and the old country name for lovely bright yellow flowers is spring messenger.

Bertie and B Baggins on one of the very few occasions when they weren't racing about and rough and tumbling with each other!

Another wildflower that I shall be going back to take photos of in both Spring and Autumn is the wild arum - soon the flower spathe will appear but it's in the autumn when it's really fabulous with clusters of red berries. It has lots of country names, I called it Lords and Ladies but P said she knows it as Cuckoo-pint and another common name is Wake Robin.

More green leaves - this time it's wild garlic or ramsons, it's a bit early for the white flowers yet and I know a local wood which has great swathes of it and that will be the place for photos when it does flower.

Eventually we came to this ford where the path crosses the stream, there's also a narrow plank bridge which is how we crossed. At least P and I did - Bertie and B Baggins crossed the ford in the time honoured way through the water:)

The first real patch of wood anenomes that I've seen,the one in my last post was literally a single flower. In this sheltered environment they are more advanced. Not a great photo as they were on the other side of the stream and I only had my little Canon with me so not much in the way of a zoom.

These really took me by surprise - wild strawberry already flowering away on the hedge bank.

Yet more green leaves with promise of things to come - this is my friend Jack By The Hedge otherwise known as Garlic Mustard. Leaves, flowers and seed pods are all edible.

Towards the end of the walk I saw this large swathe of Golden Saxifrage, it's a plant of damp woodland and really pretty when it's in full bloom. This was a really enjoyable walk with lots
of wild flowers to see and of course the warm sunshine and blue skies helped too. We walked about 5 miles altogether and I could have taken lots more photos but I try to restrain myself when I'm walking with other people:)