Christmas Common, Ewelme and Swyncombe

19 May 2021

I didn’t set off to do a wildflower walk, but I’d had some happy news earlier that morning – a new birth in my extended family; parents and baby all well. So while I was walking I was feeling a bit emotional and musing about paths through life, and that day the flowers were so prolific and varied I couldn’t help but enjoy and admire them.

I was in the Chiltern Hills, or immediately below them in the valley of the River Thames. The Chilterns in May means bluebells, and although I was expecting them to be past their best I found them to be in full bloom even along my path.

Bluebell wood

Bluebell path

As I approached Ewelme I caught fleeting glimpses through the trees of a yellow field ahead; oilseed rape, I thought. Wrong!

Buttercup path, Cow Common, Ewelme

Buttercups on Cow Common, Ewelme

Buttercups and Daisies

There were so many other flowers on show I couldn’t recognise them all or stop to photograph them. Cow Parsley of course, white nettle flowers, speedwells and bugles, and the dandelion-like flowers that my field guide says are “confusing” – not dandelions but probably Hawkbit or Catsear. And cowslips.

Cowslips

Later, on the path on lower ground, a carpet of small white flowers which I didn’t recognise turned out to be Sweet Woodruff.

Sweet Woodruff

And finally, a favourite for no other reason than that I remembered the name from first identifying it decades ago, Viburnum Lantana, also known as the Wayfaring Tree. A fitting end to a wildflower walk.

Viburnum lantana, the Wayfaring Tree

Welcome to the world, Thomas Mark!