Wild Garlic
Blue now makes way for white. Gone the sweet perfume of the Bluebells now replaced by the not so subtle aroma of Garlic. Swaths of Wild Garlic are now carpeting many of out woodland floors.
Broad green leaves and a white star like flower head. Again, like Bluebells they don’t last for that long….again nice whilst they last
Beech Trees are very much part of our woodlands. In this City Park we do have a rather special Beech. It is none native and was planted very many years ago as part of a mini Arboretum. For most of the year, unless you were a tree expert you would walk right by it and think it like any other Beech. In the Spring it is distinctly different from the rest of the English Beech family.
It is called the ‘Purple Beech’. The difference is in the new leaves. They are not the usual green but a yellow/orange/red colour, semi translucent when first formed, which when the sun catches it early, is perhaps more purple in colour. In a few weeks those distinct coloured leaves will become green.
Been a strange day. Bright sun, lots of cloud, often dull and grey with some showers. Brilliant bright to subdued like flicking a switch. New Growth is flourishing and more colours are appearing in the shadows.
Still feels very strange not to share this space with others. Understandably the Park Café has been closed for weeks now. Normally very busy, normally lots of tables and chairs for alfresco dinning. Lots of walkers taking a break with dogs waiting with hope for a titbit from their owners, lots of kids with Ice Cream. To see it locked and barred, bare and empty is, as I say, a very odd feeling… abandoned into an even stranger new world..
Stranger still to see much of a local park devoid of people…
Stranger still is that it is the 1st of May, a day in normal times when there would be traditionally May Day Celebrations taking place.
We keep on saying…there is always next year 🙂
Please Remember ….
Stay Safe …. Be Kind…. Look After Each Other
1st May
(C) David Oakes 2020
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 
But at least it wasn’t in the form of snow then . . .!
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No it wasn’t … but you never know with our weather 🙂
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Love that Purple Beech!
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A week or so of distinction before it turns green 😊💚
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Oh, OK!
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I’ve not heard of your (gorgeous) purple beech before; is it a relative of the copper beech?
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Yes…. it is part of the sylcatica family of Beech. If you are a tree specialist which I am not you would spot trunk, bark and branch differences from the more common Beech, but for me it is the distinct early spring leaf colour. Whilst the leaf does turn green it is a darker green. The Purple is an arboretum special.
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