A cheerful sight

Lesser Celandine. (Ranunculus ficaria)
Over 200 years ago Gilbert White noted that the average first flowering around his Hampshire village of Selborne was February 21st. It is one of the earliest wild flowers across the south of England.

The name comes from the Greek chelidon, meaning a Swallow. In the 15thC. It was suggested that this was because it flowered when the Swallows arrived. But of course it flowers much earlier than that. There may have been some confusion with the Greater Celandine which flowers much later.

It was Wordsworth’s favourite wild flower and he wrote three poems about it although I do not find them to be his best work.

When Wordsworth died in 1850 it was proposed that a Celandine would be a very fitting decoration for his tomb in the Lakes. But the plant carved on his tomb in Grasmere seems to be a Greater Celandine.

We used our exercise walk today to put a small birthday cake on the doorstep of a lovely lady and dear friend who is 90 today. She plans to use her exercise time to climb Arnside Knott!