The first signs of Spring in the Lambourn Valley

As the days become longer there are signs that nature is waking up too. In the woodlands around Lambourn the yellow Primrose is flowering among the leaves and mosses in the woodlands.

“Her modest looks the cottage might adorn, Sweet as the primrose peeps beneath the thorn”.
Oliver Goldsmith – Irish novelist, playwright, and poet (1728 – 1774)

Primula vulgaris, the common primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and parts of southwest Asia. The common name is primrose, or occasionally common primrose or English primrose to distinguish it from other Primula species also called primroses. The scientific name Primula is a diminutive of the Latin primus, “prime”, alluding to the fact that this flower is among the first to appear in spring. The vernacular name has the same meaning: primrose derives from a late Latin form prima rosa, consisting of prima, “first” (feminine), and rosa, “rose”.