Spring at last!

There’s a dazzling display of dandelions, interspersed with lady’s smock, at the turning to Ivybridge station. The stitchwort is out in the hedgerows at last, with wood sorrel in shady spots. The first bluebells and buds of yellow archangel are showing in Penstave woods. There are newts in our pond again too.

Spring in Bohemia

There were masses of celandines and sweet violets in Prague and its surroundings, but also flowers that are native to the Czech Republic but rarer here or only found as garden escapes. These cowslips and lungwort were growing between the gravestones in the Jewish Cemetery in Prague. At Sázava monastery, there was yellow star of Bethlehem,…

Windflowers

There were lots of wood anemones at Penstave Woods last week. They have some lovely vernacular names, including windflowers and moggy nightgown. According to Plantlife, moggy nightgown comes from Derbyshire where moggy means mouse, thus mouse’s nightgown. A rusty-back fern growing in a wall:

Town hall clock

Moschatel is a very prompt flower, befitting its common name of Town Hall Clock. Last year and the year before, it flowered at the end of March along with shining cranesbill, greater stitchwort and bluebells. This year it is here again for Easter, but the other flowers are way behind because of the persistent cold…