bluebells and ramsons

as promised everything is flowering at once this year. The woodland floor is covered with bluebells, ramsons (our wild garlic) and wood anemones, mixed up with stitchwort, and toothwort, and yellow archangel and everything else. The butterfly feeding on the ramson is a male green veined white, in fact the 'green' is a mixture of yellow and black scales. This is the first of two generations that will fly during the year, and it tends to be darker than the later generation presumably reflecting changes in the foliage

before the canopy closes in

this is about the latest in the year we will be able to see who is singing in the trees before the leaf canopy closes in for the summer. Blue tit on top, and gold finch below.

I like diggin'

Cassie has been doing her best to keep true to her Cornish mining heritage

and it's getting greener

the canopy is gradually closing in and turning green (see same spot a bit earlier this year)

the fall of Spring

two images of Spring today (in fact you can just see the blaze of red to the right of Spot's house in the picture below)

Venterdon

Spot's house from Holmbush woods, looking North across the valleys of the Inny and Tamar, with Duchy Agricultural College to the left. Below is a picture of Spot in front of the ruins of the mine works at Holmbush which used to be a source of tin, copper and arsenic (hence the lack of vegetation under the trees) and is now a world mining heritage site.
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