The snake’s head fritillaries are early this year, rising up fast while it was still mild, but now witnessing the severity of these last few days of chill winds and freeze. Oblivious to the changeable weather and dancing on wire thin stems on the bank behind the house, they hover amongst an assembly of bulbs to celebrate this moment. Small flowered narcissus and Anemone blanda, Leucojum aestivum, Tulipa clusiana and Star of Bethlehem. I love them in the mix and it is a joyous reflection of change, but once you have seen Fritillaria meleagris naturalised in a wild meadow, you cannot help but think that their subtlety is better when they are in the company of other natives. Celandine, the first cowslips and the fresh new grass of the season.  

Last autumn I took more ground so that the fritillaries could have their own place. Two projects on different time scales, but both in damper places that are more akin to the water meadows where you see them in the wild. The first, the more immediate, is on the spring-laden banks that feed the ditch, where a couple of years ago I moved the fence to give field back to this crease of wild wetland.