Over at my Mum’s. She’s been pretty much restricted to bed for the last several days, but managed to get up and come downstairs for 90 minutes at teatime, and again for supper, which was good news.
As always, a walk on the Common. The blackthorn petals are just starting to fall, but there are butterflies (peacock, brimstone, orange-tip) in abundance, and sheets of windflowers. The seasonal ponds – restored last year by a newt conservation group – are looking good. Going up towards Abel Wood there were late celandines, and masses of stitchwort. Bluebells, which I’d hoped to see, are late here this year, with only the sparse ones on the dappled fringes of the wood flowering. Plenty of primroses alongside the path, though.
It’s now some 58 years that I’ve been visiting the common in Spring. The last pic shows a grove of fairly mature trees – an area which used to be bracken, gorse and occasional bramble has turned into woodland.
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Blackthorn 
restored pond 
celandine 
stitchwort 
bluebells 
primroses 
deciduous woodland forming
