THE advantage of walking on your own in the countryside is that you can hear any sounds of nature around you. 

I was down in what I call the wild area, near the River Tiddy, when I heard the ‘honk’ of a wild goose. 

I could see no geese in the air, but when I came across a smallish pond there were two Canada geese cruising around on the water. 

These big, easily-recognised and very handsome birds were brought over from North America during the 17th century to decorate large ponds on rich estates but, of course, they escaped and now live all over the British Isles. 

Unfortunately, for the early settlers, the titled gentry were very fond of goose pie, something that gave the living birds the incentive to escape.  

Also down in the valley I was able to photograph some Dog’s mercury that was out in bloom with clusters of tiny, yellowish, almost green flowers. 

A very poisonous plant that is of no use to man nor beast and is so named after Mercury, a Roman god who supposedly discovered the plant that gives off a fetish smell which attracts midges that crawl over the flowers to pollinate them. Not even fit for a dog to eat – he said.   

Everyone knows what nettle leaves look like and always does their very best to avoid touching them as they have tiny hairs on the underside of their leaves that break off when touched, releasing acid onto the skin. 

However, there is a different nettle that is almost identical to the stinging variety that is very safe to touch and produces large, white flowers with a lower lip that creates a landing pad for bees. 

This is the very lovely White dead-nettle that decorates the bottom of hedgerows from February onwards.

Before coming into bloom, many parts of the Yellow archangel are similar to the closely related dead-nettle plants, but as the name suggests their flowers are yellow. 

In fact, the plant prefers sheltered woodland and grassy banks rather than open roadsides, and once established will quickly spread far and wide on its vicious rootstock.

We have a white-flowered plant in Quethiock that is spreading aggressively every year. This is the Three–cornered garlic. 

Very similar to white bluebells from the distance but close-up the whole plant, with its triangular stems, smells strongly of onions or leeks. 

One might think these flowers might look great in the garden but they will quickly take over a large patch.

There are literally thousands of these white blooms on the road side leading to St Hugh’s Church where they have taken over a very large part of the graveyard. 

I spotted my first hoverfly of the season settled on a Lesser celandine flower. 

I cannot identify all of our hover flies but this one had a brown head and a shiny black back. It was no longer than 10mm and this sighting will encourage me to walk even more slowly along the lanes now, hopefully to see more of them.