Lesser Celandine

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 The first of our meadow flowers made an appearance this week. In a few weeks the field will be full of them but there are just a handful at the moment.

I took this with the handy little macro lens that clips onto my phone. A great bit of kit if you remember to carry it with you.
Apparently 21st Feb is known as "Celandine day" as the famous naturalist Gilbert White reckoned that it flowered on this day. Gilbert White lived a few hundred miles South of here and at a lower altitude and we are a month later here - despite global warming. The flower is regarded as a harbinger of spring - which fits for this locality too. The plant used to be called "pilewort" because it used to be used to treat haemorrhoids. This was because of the "doctrine of signatures" and antiquated piece of nonsense that I have discussed on previous blogs.

Diary
Lovely sunny weather. There are lambs out in the fields and there is a real feeling of Spring. I am still upset by the tree felling on the old railway line near us - a scene of devastation!

All of these trees have been infected by the Ash Dieback Fungus.



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