Small, Rare And Beautiful

We're off in search of something small, rare and very beautiful today. It may be there or it may not. It may be putting on a show or it may be shy and retiring. But first we have to go to the town of Royston and from there we have quite a trek across what is universally known as The Heath, but is actually a chalk grassland.

Up on the Heath, keeping one eye out for flying golf balls, you may find cowslips growing on the slopes.

Skylarks were singing overhead and underfoot (almost literally!) was this fine fellow....

....I think it's a Bloody-Nosed Beetle, he gets his name from the way in which he releases his foul-smelling blood from his mouthparts in order to dissuade potential predators. If it is a Bloody-Nosed Beetle then it fulfils the "small" and possibly even the "beautiful" elements of our quest but is not actually very rare. We need to walk a little further.....

....past what looks like the golf-hole-at-the-edge-of-the-world, and into Fox Covert Wood....

There are some small and beautiful flowers blooming in here if you look closely....

 ....yes, violets, but they're not rare either - they even grow in the garden, whether you want them to or not!

Dog's Mercury is there too, an indicator of old woodland but not at all rare and hardly beautiful. No we have to look out for Church Hill.
Ah, there it is!

It's that little bump in the middle distance. Not much of a hill, I know, but if you walk around the far side you might find....

Pulsatilla Vulgaris or the Pasque Flower. It gets its common name from "Paschal" meaning to do with Easter, the time of year it blooms.

Small, very beautiful and pretty rare too, only growing on long-undisturbed chalk grassland. It is the county flower of Hertfordshire and also has the rather more exciting name of Danes' Blood, which is thought to come from its habit of thriving on ancient burial mounds.

Now I've got to walk all the way back!

Take care.