It is our turn to lead the walking club walk in July. We have a plan but went out today to walk half the walk and check essentials like parking, where to have the coffee stop and so on. Our walk is around Lathkill Dale, which is always beautiful, but was just spectacularly so today. We finally had lovely sunny weather and so everything looked its best, but May is so gorgeous - fantastic displays of orchids, buttercups in the meadows, marsh marigolds in the water, and cowslips, campion, yellow archangel and forget-me-not everywhere. I'm not sure that they all ought to be out at once, but I think things are a bit confused by the weather! Here's a couple of photos:
I picked some wild garlic leaves and put them in a salad for tea. It's the first time I've eaten wild garlic. it smelled stronger than it tasted; it just made the salad a bit more interesting.
The birds were super - lots of larks singing their hearts out and wagtails by the stream, and some baby coots and ducklings. The mother duck seemed quite careless - the ducklings kept getting caught in the stream and nearly getting swept away, peeping frantically, and the mother just ignored them. Maybe Beatrix Potter was describing gritty reality in Jemima Puddleduck.
I've got to put in a tribute to Natural England. They've done a lot of conservation work in Lathkill Dale and it really shows.
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