It was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods, bright, sunny and warm with a little dappled shade here and there. All the trees had foliage, after the cold winter months looking at the buds, it was lovely to see the leaves sprouting from the buds and flowers forming.
In April we looked closely at the wild garlic (ransoms), learning how to identify this tasty plant. This month everyone was looking forward to seeing the wild garlic in flower – and they weren’t disappointed, there were lots of flowers. Some leaves and flowers were gathered to make pesto and to add zome zing to salads.
The children remembered the pointer buds of the beech, but could not see them bursting into leaf. Being so young and fresh, you can clearly see the fine downy hairs around the edge of the leaves. Whilst a little chewy, they have a nice flavour and are good with other leaves in a salad – a few leaves were tried.
Taking a closer look at the beech foliage, we could see the flowers, the male flower out on a stem, hairy / downy.
The flowers of the goat willow are now fully formed and it won’t be long until they burst with blossom and become fluffy like a pussies tail!
So easily missed, the Cockooflower or lady’s-smock is a beautiful little flower, it’s flowers sitting a top a slender tall stem, with purple veins radiating out across four pale petals.
Often seen hidden around the margins of hedgerows or edges of gardens, the dog violet has a stunning purple-blue flowers with darker coloured veins. We found a carpet of these violets out in full sunshine, as vivid as the bluebells but sitting close to the ground, nestled within the grass.
Thank you to everyone who joined me for this lovely woodland walk, it was nice to see familiar faces and meet new families too, especially the youngest to attend the walk at just 7 weeks!