Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

April come she will

10/4/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureFemale flowers on European larch
Fat snowflakes drift through the darkness and  melt as they touch down.  Next morning, the Howgills are brilliant with snow .  A pall of mist sits over Windermere, hugging the lake,  and the Langdale Pikes rise indeterminate between mist and snow .  On Scout Scar, willow warbler and chiff chaff are singing .  April come she will. I sing  Paul Simon’s song of the season  to welcome  the cuckoo.  Softly singing all the way to Africa to wing him on his way.  It's three  years since I heard the bubbling call of the female who is so much more discreet.  For now, there’s freshness and beauty in the first flowers.


 I love tree flowers.  Sunlight pours through  larch with ruby female flowers and fresh green needles  against a blue sky. Golden green flowers on hybrid larch resemble tiny pineapples.

On the limestone clitter the stunted blackthorn is in tight bud, but in a sheltered, south-facing spot the plant becomes a tall shrub with early flowers .
At Helsington Church I meet a friend and we stand  in the sun, looking north where  snow gleams on distant fells.  Here the escarpment descends by Wells Garth, that  settlement  hidden in the trees where springs burst from the limestone and gardens  grow lush. We listen for the sound of falling water, always  a surprise after the limestone of Scout Scar.  Zwartbles graze in the pastures where springs bubble up  and a beck flows down through an orchard of damson trees, budding and with the first flowers of the season.  Zwartbles from Friesland, dark ewes with a white blaze on the face.   At Park End Farm the limestone meets  the mosses of the Lyth Valley and we are close to the pools recently created to attract water birds- a habitat with reed beds.
An English hedgerow in April is a joy.  Last summer’s climbing plants interweave the stout structures of hedgerow shrubs and the white flowers of blackthorn  show well before the leaf buds open. One  spring day we came off wild weather on the fells to Kentmere Hall and a hedge where  snowflakes fell  upon the white flowers of blackthorn.  There's such colour within those pure white flowers .  All the while the faint buzz of pollinators wove through the hedge.
Ramson leaves grew thick in the hedge bottom and the first flowers caught the blaze of light.
Heading back up the escarpment, toward the church, I stop to photograph violets.  Whilst writing Cumbrian Contrasts I spent hours studying the relationship between flowers and pollinators, photographing those markings that guide insects to the source of nectar. And  I love that gem-like colour at the heart of the corolla.  Last spring, as I was putting the finishing touches to the story I was experimenting with a style of flower photography that I introduce once or twice into my new book.  It’s a close and intimate way of seeing flowers that brings a surprise.  It’s not how we see flowers at a glance. It’s down amongst  the small mammals of the hedgerow bottom and nuzzling amongst blossoms as bees do- wondering what they see because their vision is unlike ours.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books.)

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2019 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3