In two weeks, the delicate, green and white, wood anemone carpet of early April has given way to a swathes of deep blue bluebells under a high shade of hornbeam. By mid-May the bluebells are fading; there is no further colourful succession, just the shade and silence of a summer woodland.

Wood anemones in early April

Bluebells in mid April that are largely over by mid May

Wood anemones at dusk

Bluebells at dusk

Goldilocks buttercup, a tall but understated Ranunculus species, not of open spaces but woodland shade, lines the narrow, earthen path used by walkers, boys on motorbikes, foxes and badgers. The yellow archangel is spectacular and always finds some sunshine on the woodland edge.

Goldilocks buttercup

Yellow archangel