Easter Sunday was a wash-out so our Easter Lamb was cooked and eaten at #48 and we didn’t even get back to Titania’s Bower to hunt for the ‘Easter Eggs’ [aka bottles of wine and beer].

Monday [April 21] was glorious though so we went up to the woods to retrieve the bottles as best we could and knock up sausage and onions in french bread for lunch.  Not all the bottles made it back full.

The bluebells were at their best :

and the Early Purple Orchids, Orchis mascula [I cannot see how one can have Orchis femina!], down by Eastern Stream were putting on a lovely show.  The race that we have starts quite dark when in bud :

and lightens up as it matures :

The last of March and the first of April.  It looks as if the woods might be more of an anemone wood than a bluebell wood.  Since finding the first wood anemone in early March until now, the woods have come alive with a carpet of green and white :

This picture was taken at the junction of Main Ride and Central ride, looking north.  There are even the occasional pink ones to be seen :

The bluebells are coming on and a few are in flower but the density at this stage doesn’t justify waxing lyrical.  Perhaps this is because it is so long since the wood was coppiced?

March 8 and the first wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa, in flower is spotted on the edge of the ride in Tania’s Bower.

The flowers are primitive, in that they have no petals, only the white sepals.

January 15 and winter has finally arrived with clear skies and sub-zero nights but the warmth up until a few days ago has brought on a lot of plants.  The first Bluebell plants are clearly visible :

as are the Early Purple Orchids :