We had a beautiful Easter, with wonderful warm weather, which allowed us to spend lots of time outside. We enjoyed the company of our family for Sunday lunch and relaxing afternoon in the garden.
On Monday morning we were taken on a "wild flower safari" by a local farmer.
Wild flowers have been on a decline for many years, mainly due to modern farming methods. The farmers were encouraged to plough right up to the edges of the fields and get rid of the hedges which surrounded them. The addition of fertilizers help to destroy the natural habitat for wild flowers.
Luckily, we all have realized in time, that we are destroying something very precious, and once gone, it will not come back. The government is now giving financial incentives to our farmers to replace the original hedgerows, to leave a belt of unploughed land around the fields, and where possible, let the field return to a meadow. Of course, this takes several years to achieve, but the farmer now has several meadows, with an abundance of wild flowers and he was very proud to show us around.
The walks around his meadows are open to public, so anyone can come and enjoy the flowers.
The selection of wild flowers depends on the time of year, constantly changing.
At the moment this field is covered in
cowslips
wild orchids
and spring pea
The highlight of our wild flower walk was this 2 acre bluebell woodland. I know I showed you pictures of bluebells before, but this is something on quite a different scale. I haven't seen so many flowers in one place before.
and among bluebells - yellow archangel (nettle family)
Spring is my favourite time of year and living in the country we can enjoy it so much more. We have been very lucky this year, having such an early spring, specially after a hard winter.
But, it has also been very, very dry and that is not so good. We are now watering even our plum trees, or we can't hope for any fruit this year. The weather is cooling now, down to normal temperatures, but still no sign of rain.