walk 3 ...

more evidence of how our world has turned brown including one solitary celandine peeping through the fallen leaves.

walk 2 ...and the butterbur

the butterbur is late this year. This is giant butterbur, rather than our native butterbur which is much pinker

walk 1 ...and so it was

somewhat earlier than usual, but there nevertheless as anticipated, the gruesome purple toothwort. Not a speck of green, although some celandine is growing up through the bed of toothwort

orange things

last night's fiery sunset, and some fresh scarlet elf cups from this morning's walk. People are saying that this Spring will be very exuberant because the cold has delayed most plants and everything will come into flower at once. Elf cups appear in late winter and early Spring. Tomorrow we might go in search of the purple toothwort

a brown time

one of the stranger consequences of this long cold dry period is that everything has turned a light brown. Normally at this time of year (and all year) Cornwall is a rich vivid green. But no grass is growing yet, and the landscape looks as if Nature has taken to painting in watercolours. The sun is still quite low in the sky and in the morning and evening the world around us has taken on a novel hue.

For the last couple of weeks a pair of jackdaws have taken to sitting in a fir tree overlooking our garden. One of them is making a sound like a creaking branch or a very rough purr. I can't find any reference to this call but I assume it is a love poem. They are very interesting birds.

the road to Down House

the little lane down to Down House is once again full of colour, and the first Spring daffodils are coming into flower with the snowdrops and crocuses