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April the First and we had the warmest April Fool's day since 1907 - no joke! It was lovely, 20ºC, the sunshine brought the meadow on a touch. The Blackthorn has white blossom, the Hawthorn has spring green leaves and things are brightening up in general. The newly planted hazel saplings (below), after part of the the wood was cleared earlier in the year, are just showing growth too.
The three clusters of Wood Anemone (flower) in Furzefield are now in flower and I saw the first Bluebells of '99. New too, for me at least, is the Dog Violet that was hiding in the undergrowth at the top of the wood. The yellow flowers of carpeting Lesser Celandine are just showing too. Birds: Over the Easter weekend I saw the Goldfinches hanging around the kissing gate again and a Woodpecker was making a racket that morning, and on others, his chortling and knocking echoing away.
The last week of April now and I've spotted the pale whitish-green flowers of Lords and Ladies (aka Cuckoo pint) with their purple-tipped spadixes hiding in the undergrowth with another patch of violets. There's garlic mustard and yellow archangel in flower and... and...
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April Diary
First flowers: 
Insects: well not much to see as yet apart
from the three large (2cm) Bumblebees I saw in one
morning, presumably looking for somewhere in the ground
to nest. 
On the animal
front there seems to be a new arrival - the Mole -
evidenced by the molehills by the side of Potters Bar
Brook in the meadow. We shan't see any, of course, but
it's nice to know of their presence. The more residents,
the better.
