Easter Sunday at Finchale
Apr. 5th, 2021 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustToday is - or would have been - my father's birthday, and it has become our custom to mark the day with a visit to the ruins of Finchale Priory. I posted about it last year, although lockdown meant we weren't allowed to go there; this year restrictions were relaxed, but the forecast was for terrible weather. So we went yesterday, instead.
I have never seen the place so busy; but then, we don't usually visit on a Bank Holiday weekend. There were families with children defying the notices about not climbing on the masonry (as blithely as we were all ignoring the notice about wearing a mask); there were people manoeuvering pushchairs along uneven paths, and up and down steps; there were people walking dogs. But there was never less than enough space, and mostly there was plenty. We strolled around the priory, and then we crossed the river and walked along the bank opposite, and enjoyed the wood anemones and the violets and the wild garlic brandishing its spears and almost - but not quite - coming into bloom. My favourite photograph was none of these things (my camera doesn't capture the deep blue of the violets) but this clump of something I can't identify, still beside the rushing river:
We woke this morning to see that the threatened wintery showers had happened overnight: there was snow on the ground, but the sun was shining. It's cold, though, and the wind is blustery, so we probably made the right choice.
I have never seen the place so busy; but then, we don't usually visit on a Bank Holiday weekend. There were families with children defying the notices about not climbing on the masonry (as blithely as we were all ignoring the notice about wearing a mask); there were people manoeuvering pushchairs along uneven paths, and up and down steps; there were people walking dogs. But there was never less than enough space, and mostly there was plenty. We strolled around the priory, and then we crossed the river and walked along the bank opposite, and enjoyed the wood anemones and the violets and the wild garlic brandishing its spears and almost - but not quite - coming into bloom. My favourite photograph was none of these things (my camera doesn't capture the deep blue of the violets) but this clump of something I can't identify, still beside the rushing river:
We woke this morning to see that the threatened wintery showers had happened overnight: there was snow on the ground, but the sun was shining. It's cold, though, and the wind is blustery, so we probably made the right choice.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-05 02:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 10:51 am (UTC)These have a leaf like a bluebell, and grow in the same sort of places - but then they do that exploding seed head ...
no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-08 11:15 am (UTC)Anyway, yes, I see: I'd wondered about hellebore, but it dodn't look like the ones I could find (which didn't include that stinker): very toxic, apparently.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-05 07:59 pm (UTC)I have no idea, but it looks great.
no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-05 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-05 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 10:53 am (UTC)