Red Dead Nettle (Lamium purpureum)

Dear Readers, after all the thunder and lightning yesterday we went for a short walk around East Finchley just to see what was in flower, and what a pleasant walk it was! We started off in Cherry Tree Wood, where there’s a very pleasant mix of wild flowers and bulbs.

It wasn’t bright enough for many flowers to open, but it was very encouraging to see the windflowers (wood anemones) surviving and thriving in what had been a very compacted, well-trodden part of the wood. Nobody likes fences, but sometimes they’re needed just to give things a chance to recover.

And there’s a very fine patch of daffodils just where you come into the wood. I knew that there were lots of different varieties, but it’s not until you see them altogether that you realise the range of colours and ‘designs’. I am monomaniacal about plants with pollinator value (and daffodils are not high up the list), but these are so cheerful that even I refuse to be curmudgeonly for once.

And then we head out onto the unadopted road, which looks as if it’s had a bit of a trim and a tidy-up (unfortunately). Still, there is green alkanet, and some ivy-leaved toadflax, both looking very pretty against the brick walls.

Here’s a thing  that I haven’t seen before (or at least haven’t noticed) – this cherry tree looks as if it’s two varieties grafted together – white flowers at the bottom, pink flowers at the top.

I’m always impressed by these acid-green euphorbias as well, they seem to flower for months.

And then it’s on to the County Roads, to see what we can see there. There’s a very fine evergreen clematis with a sweet, citrus smell (Clematis armandii I think)…

…and next to it there is a cloud of winter gnats. These little flies appear during the first mild days of spring, and gather in some numbers to mate. The males only live for about five days, so let’s hope they managed to fulfil their life’s purpose, which is to reproduce. These tiny insects are food for so many other creatures, and their larvae are often detritivores, clearing up decaying matter.

And so it’s back onto our road, where there is a whole ecosystem growing in the cracks closest to the walls and front gardens. Greater Celandine is clearly having a good year already…

The dog violets from next door are happily spreading along the road…

and there are even some grape hyacinths, which have made themselves at home in most unprepossessing circumstances.

And now it’s time to get stuck into my Open University course again. Wish me luck!