The Colours of Spring

Colinton Dell is flowing with lesser celandines at the moment, some areas are carpeted

and there are little clumps of them everywhere, they're so pretty specially in the full sun

The first bluebells are also out

and the wood anemones were awake today

All these flowers seem to be spreading through the Dells, though the anemones are only in one patch, it is extending in size.

Wild leek is also in bloom now and also spreading, sadly at the expense of wild garlic (ramsons) though the leek is pretty and probably fulfils a similar ecological niche (it can be eaten just like wild garlic too)

 The larch flowers are maturing nicely on my favourite larch tree (though some other larches are not yet flowering), some are still the beautiful red colour they have when they are first fully formed, some are becoming more purplish. It was very difficult to photograph the larch today as it was quite windy and the branches wouldn't keep still. This photo shows a flower with a fully matured cone from probably a couple of years ago (this seems to me an unusually large cone)

Lots of birds around as ever, I was amazed how many bullfinches there seemed to be. I've seen more of this species than normal over this past winter and it looks like several pairs may now be thinking about breeding in the Dells.