Lesser stitchwort, flowering from early spring and through the summer. Once believed to help wounds heal faster.
Early spring flowers: cow parsley
Cow parsley, an early flowering and delicate umbellifer. Also called Queen Anne’s lace.
Dandelion overhanging canal
One stalk of a dandelion which had already shed its seeds was standing proud over the water of the canal.
Spring butterflies: holly blues
Holly blue butterflies are a regular April feature along the canal footpath near Compton. This year they seemed even more evident. There was a new one resting either on the ivy in the hedgerow, or on the footpath itself, every ten yards or so.
Spring flowers: purple vetch
Peeping out among all the other vegetation, the purple flowers of a vetch – a wildflower member of the pea and bean family,
Spring butterflies: comma
Comma butterfly spreading and moving its wings to warm itself in the sun. It never quite folded the wings to show the comma mark on the undersides.