Dudmaston Snowdrop Walk. 15 February, 2014

Dudmaston (NT) opens for two weekends in February for its annual Snowdrop Walk.  So, despite the high winds, I decided to start of the floral year with a visit there.

The snowdrops were in full bloom and, with nothing else in flower, stood out from last years dead vegetation and are a delight to see in, effectively, mid winter They are a simple and beautiful flower with their drooping flowers and green, linear leaves.  Wordsworth, that great nature poet, wrote his poem To A Snowdrop whilst he was at Rydal Mount and says impart:

Lone flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they
But hardier far, once more I see thee bend ...
Yet art thou welcome, welcome as a friend ...
Chaste Snowdrop, venturous harbinger of Spring,
And pensive monitor of fleeting years!

I managed to get some photos but I wished I had taken my tripod with me as, because of low light, I was on a slow shutter and was finding it difficult shooting handheld.  Nevertheless, they haven't come out too bad.

Snowdrop 

Snowdrop

After admiring the snowdrops, I walked through the Dingle and came across a notice which had been put up by the NT staff of a sketch of the Dingle painted in 1835 by a Miss Elizabeth Shepherd.

The 1835 sketch by Elizabeth Shepherd and a view of the Dingle today.

Last time I visited Dudmaston (see 1 January post) I mentioned bamboo by  the side of the pool.  Interestingly, in the garden by the car park was two other species of bamboo - yellow groove and black bamboo.

Yellow Groove Bamboo.

Black Bamboo.

Close up of Yellow Groove Bamboo.