Snowdrops - time to enjoy them.

I'm always writing about Snowdrops, among other things - and occasionally, it's nice to just stop and admire them.

There! 

Isn't that lovely?

Particularly nice, I thought, with the pale winter sun making bold shadows of the trees.

These were all Galanthus nivalis, which is what you might call "common snowdrop", as it's the one you are most likely to find while out walking, ie not in someone's cultivated garden.

There are only three species of Galanthus which you would encounter in the wild, as it were: these ones, G. nivalis (which always makes me think of Nivea), G. plicata, and G. elwesii.

If you'd like to know the difference, you can't do much better than to download my Field Guide on the subject:

 ...and if you have Kindle Unlimited, it's free!

Free!

All that work, for free!

(and if you don't have Kindle Unlimited, it's only a couple of quid, go on, buy it, go on, go on!)

I love the way that we can only have Snowdrops now, in late winter: unlike buying out-of-season fruit and veg all year round in the supermarket, we can only admire these delicate beauties on their own terms.

And it always lifts my spirits, because whenever you see a drift of "wild" snowdrops, out there in woodland, or alongside footpaths, or on verges: always, there is the thought that someone, some day, planted the original clump, and then left them there to multiply, so that everyone walking past can enjoy them.

Community spirit, at its best!

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