Snowdrop Walk

At the invitation of Pleach and her husband, we took an afternoon stroll round the snowdrops in Dalkeith Park.
Although we know the park well enough, we had never been at this time and were pleased to be shown round all the best displays. Some of the flowers are double varieties, some are the more common singles, compared them in the extra photo.

Also coming into bloom are primroses, of which we examined the blossoms for those pin-eyed (where the stigma is longer than the anthers and appears as a dot) or thrum-eyed (the anthers being longer than the stigma appear fuzzy). 

We noticed the early signs of the wild garlic, reminding me that I have a bag of last year's few-flowered leek in the freezer... .

Coffee in the Restoration Yard and a long natter followed before we all realised that the staff were cleaning up around us so we trooped back to the cars with thoughts of the next floral display - the bluebells.

Thanks, Pleach for a delightful afternoon. And we totally forgot to make pancakes for tea... .