David

When hellebores flower, the weight of the flowers tend to bed the stems, so the flowers nod or droop, pointing towards the ground.

The more vivid purple hellebores in these pictures were in a front garden. The only views I could get looking over the garden wall showed the undersides of the petals.

The others were growing near the top of a roadside grassy bank on Compton hill. As I came along the pavement, I was below the plants, and so got at least a partial view of the “front” of the flower.

The female mallard cross hasn’t been around for quite as long as the drake. In contrast to him, she has a pale plumage, and whenever I’ve noticed her, she’s been on her own.

Cherry blossom up above. The tree with the white flowers was spreading its branches across the wall from in the grounds of West Park Hospital. The one with pink flowers was in the park itself.

The two mallard cross ducks which have been on the lake at West Park recently seem to be settling in. The drake has darker plumage than mallards. It regularly goes round with a group of them.

Plants of the woodland under-storey have a brief growing season. It’s cut short when the trees above them develop their own leaves, shading whatever’s growing below from the life-giving energy of sunlight. So the likes of bluebells have to throw up their leaves early in the year to build up their stores.

These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago, when the plants were showing no sign of flowers. Perhaps those are beginning to show about now, along with the increasing shade from the developing foliage canopy above.

The West Park turtle is back. We first noticed the turtle (or terrapin) during the first lockdown, three years ago, but were later told that other people had spotted in for some years already.

It climb onto a branch near one of the islands in the lake in the mornings, and stays sunning itself for several hours. It’s homeland is the swamps of Florida, so it survives the British climate by hibernating in the mud at the bottom of the lake during the colder months.

Last year, it emerged as usual in March. But despite regular visits, we didn’t see it again after May, and began to fear the worst.

Perhaps its disappearance was because it found some more private spot to sunbathe. Right on schedule, with a week to go before the end of March, there it was back in its usual spot, with its tail dangling in the water.