We have a favourite walk which starts on the promenade at Arnside in Cumbria and takes us along the coast and around the headland to Far Arnside and then back over Arnside Knott to the car. It affords us some spectacular views over Morecambe Bay in the first half of the walk whilst the second half is dominated by the the Kent estuary and the mountains of the Lake District. Scarce and even downright rare wild flowers and invertebrates abound here and if you search this blog you will see other reports of mine from Arnside relating to Teesdale violet and rare spring sedge, Scotch argus and dark-red helleborine, High brown and dark-green fritillaries, Maidenhair fern, and lots of posts about hoverflies.
Yet surely one of the most beautiful sights of all occurs in March when the daffodils are in full bloom. Perhaps it's because as yet they lack competition and shine like a beacon from the shadows, or perhaps it's because they bring joy to my heart as one of the earliest harbingers of spring, but whatever the reason, these wild daffodils are one of the highlights of the year for me. They're quite small and delicate when compared to the more robust and vulgar cultivated varieties which threaten our natives with extinction through hybridisation, but no amount of human interference and creativity has yet produced a cultivated daffodil to compete with the originals.
It wasn't a particularly windy day, these Yew trees are permanently this shape.
Morecambe Bay.
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