I just learnt that Snowdrops are also called Candlemas Bells! Such a pretty name….

” The Snowdrop in purest white array, First rears her head on Candlemas Day”.

Candlemas Day is celebrated on the 2nd February. This is about the time that we see snowdrops peeping their heads out through beds of old leaves.

In the Christian calendar this marks the end of forty days of Christmas festivities and all the church candles would be lit and a blessing said over them.

This day also marks the mid point of winter – halfway between the shortest day and the spring equinox.

The snowdrop is said to be the symbol of hope – yes hope that springtime is just around the corner. But it is also said to come from the story of Adam and Eve. After they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, Eve was about to give up hope that the winter would ever end, when an angel popped down from heaven and transformed the snowflakes into tiny little white bell flowers. 

The name snowdrop comes from eardrop – an old name for earring.

The Latin name is Galanthus – meaning milk flower!

This little wildflower has grown around my pond for years, but sadly I had never found out the name. So when Elisabeth and Nick Sturt dropped by for tea after giving us advice about St Nic’s Graveyard they identified lots of plants for me!

It only grows around our pond as the soil is heavy and silty there. When you look at it properly it is very pretty – like a tiny pink bottlebrush!

Musk Mallow is the most delicate of the mallows. Normally we see it in pretty pink but on our walk to the graveyard at West Dean we came across a white variety. 

It is called musk mallow because when it is a warm sunny day it gives off a sweet musky fragrance.

This afternoon was stiflingly hot but the two Jennies and I decided upon an outing to West Dean graveyard. We had been told that it was very sympathetically tidied by someone on the West Dean Parish Council. So we were hoping to glean a few ideas for St Nics.

After tea at West Dean Stores we wandered along to the church of St Andrew which is just outside the walls of West Dean Gardens and College. It was clear that it had been mown very recently but little tussocks of wildflowers had been left. And here we saw these harebells. They are a good indicator of poor, dry soils – so typical of this part of the South Downs. They choose to flower in little clumps, nooks and crannies. 

I’d never really looked properly at this flower before – assuming somehow that it is a later version of cow parsley!! It does look very similar but is a bright yellow umbellifer – I’m even using botanical terms now!

I need to try to get this to grow in my wild patch, for by this time of the year most flowers still blooming are white. It is thought to have got its name – wild parsnip from the Latin name Pastinaca which probably comes from pastus meaning pasture. Or the name could come from the Latin Pastinare meaning to dig. The roots would have been used to provide a strong peppery flavour to soups and stews.

The South Downs are smothered with Wild Marjoram at the moment. Pathways are lined with a froth of mauve blossom and purple buds and the air is full of a soft woody oregano-like fragrance attracting all kinds of insects.