This Week in Photos: 13th – 19th April (16)

Rapeseed sunset – Jack-by-the-hedge – Bluebells at Shrawley – Apple Blossom – Lords-and-ladies – Small nettle vs. Common nettle

Jack-by-the-hedge *Alliaria petiolata*, Leapgate Railway Line, 15.04.26.

Bluebells *Hyacinthoides non-scripta* at Shrawley Woods. 18.04.26.

Apple Blossom fills the air with the sweet scent of roses. Hartlebury Common. 19.04.26.

Lords-and-ladies *Arum maculatum*. Hartlebury Common. 19.04.26.

Comparison of Small nettle *Urtica urens* (foreground) with Common Nettle *Urtica dioica* behind it. Near Ingon, Warwickshire. 14.04.26.

Notes

I haven’t managed to capture as much as I’d have liked to this week, but Week 16 has felt like the true start of spring.

Apple blossoms are fully out, cow parsley is starting, but the most obvious features of the countryside that have stood out have been the rapeseed fields, the bluebell woods, and Jack-by-the-hedge. A lot has recently come into flower on Hartlebury Common, too, including many smaller acid grassland flowers.