I stepped out of my door into brilliant sunshine for an afternoon walk. As I closed the door a few drops of rain started to fall even though the sky was mostly blue, they soon dried up. I chose a familiar route that I have not walked for a while with the potential to explore other pathways along the way.

By the time I reached Leegomery pools the promising blue sky had turned several shades of grey without a hint of blue to be seen. I lingered a while enjoying the view over the pools and made my decision to take the shortest route back home.

It started to gently rain, a few minutes later the wind blew up and the rain got more intense. A few minutes later, rain was dripping of the peak brim of my weatherproof coat. By the time I got home my trousers were soaked but the rest of me was dry. I fumbled for my house key, water dripping from the brim of my hat into my bag. The key (as always) had mysteriously relocated to the bottom of my bag.

Key retrieved, I opened the door, at which point the rain stopped and the sun came out!

As I stepped inside Mr C poked his head out of the room where he was ‘working from home’ and we both burst out laughing at my watery predicament.

Our wild flower daffodil is considered to be a native plant although it may have been introduced two thousand years ago by the Romans. In the late sixteenth century, John Gerard, the herbalist, regarded daffodils as growing throughout England. Today our wild daffodils only exist in scattered locations in Devon, the Black Mountains, along the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border, the Sussex Wield, Yorkshire and the Lake District.

The name daffodil is very old deriving from the ‘asphodelus’ of Greek mythology, a plant that grew in the meadows of the underworld; throughout time the name has evolved through asphodilus and affodil into daffodil, the common name for a member of the Narcissus genus of plants. Other common names for the daffodil are Lent Rose and Lent Lilly, reflecting the flowering period.

Narcissus is the generic name for a large group of plants native to southern Europe. Spain and Portugal are home to many species including the dwarf daffodil, N. asturiensis found growing at an altitude of 4000-6000 feet. Narcissus hispanicus is the founder species of 99% of the yellow trumpet varieties of daffodil; the most important yellow trumpet variety of daffodil to be bred was ‘King Alfred’, this has become the best known and most widely grown of daffodils, plant breeders have produced over 25,000 varieties in shades of yellow, white, orange and peach-pink.

Ron Iremonger
Warden

I am everyone’s darling: the blackbird and starling
Are shouting about me from blossoming boughs;
For I the Lent Lily, the Daffy-Down-Dilly,
Have heard through the country the call to arouse.
The Orchards are ringing with voices a-singing
The praise of my petticoat, praise of my gown;
The Children are playing, and hark! they are saying
That Daffy-Down-Dilly has come up to town.

Cicely Mary Parker