This year’s particularly lavish and long-lasting blooms of former commercial narcissi – perhaps the bulbs having benefited from the cool damp weather of last August – draw attention from other floral indicators of advancing spring.
On sheltered banks along narrow lanes, primrose, violet, uncurling ferns and stitchwort already merge between bluebells, while dandelion, nettle, dock and clinging strands of goosegrass dominate the tractor-rutted verges and hedge footings. Beside the stony track from Barrett’s Mill and the old silver mining area in Fullaford Road, primroses grow on long stems among rabbit-scuffed earth, all overblown by chilling winds and the savoury smell from Callington’s pasty factory.
