​April is a month when our native plants are beginning to come alive, a perfect time to forage provided you know 100% what the plant is and you can check with an herbalist about allergies or reactions you may have. Do not ever trample plants and only pick when they are abundant!

Celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) are part of the buttercup family. I find celandine rootlets delicious, gently fried they taste like pine nuts and can be added to a wild salad or stir fry. The waxy heart shaped leaves are distinctive followed by the bright yellow flowers. Ideally collect before flowering and do not eat raw.

​Primroses (Primula vulgaris) are named after their own family and by April they are coming to the end of their season for it is the young leaves and flowers that are the tastiest added to a salad.

​Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)- The kidney shaped leaves cannot be mistaken when crushed as they have a pungent smell typical of the mint family. The leaves are rather bitter raw but can be added to salads and to flavour food. I prefer them as a soothing tea for the stomach.

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) are part of our largest plant family known as the daisy family. It is a welcome bitter addition to salads as its leaves are full of vitamins and minerals and are a natural diuretic which naturally replaces the potassium in the body. Pick fresh leaves or dig up its roots to make coffee. The roots need to be baked in the oven for about ten minutes on a low heat though be careful not to burn them!

Chickweed (Stellaria media) is part of the pink family and is a refreshing tasty salad leaf full of nutrients. Not to be mistaken with upright mouse ear chickweed ( Cerastium fontanum) which grows more upright and is hairy hence the name ‘mouse ear’. Common chickweed is brittle and sprawling with only a few hairs at the base of the leaves.

​Herb bennet (Geum urbanum) - The roots can be dug up and washed to eat raw with a taste of cloves and in moderation its leaves can be used in salads and to flavour food.

This Easter in Southern England whether you were in a city or town or rural expanse was filled with the joy and delights of the unchanged elements of nature that call us to look up to the sky filled with golden, silver and startlingly white blossoms of this time of year. As we walk on concrete streets or green-filled pastures bright golden dandelions speak of buried treasure and perfectly formed white stars appear on upright mouse ear plants and the sprawling foliage of its close relative the chickweed pictured below. ​

​Bright yellow primroses ( pictured below) decorate street-lined escarpments which grow beneath golden pollen-filled pussy willow catkins and white cherry plum blossoms which are rapidly being replaced by the deceptively delicate looking flowers of blackthorn.
The blackcap, robin and tits sing on breathtaking clouds of pollen produced from the vibrant white flowers that cover the trees like drifts of snow burdening branches with beauty. Kestrels hover, the red kite soars and crows cackle from woven nests.

A yellow green tinge from maple tree flowers, the unfurling of hazel and hawthorn buds decorated beneath with the first white anemones (pictured below) star-like stitchworts and clambering cleavers. The dark outline of snake-like branches and gigantic bollings of the oak remain imposingly stark against the backdrop of a riot of colour and melodious sound. The hum of insects and the first buzz of bees approves the enriching pollen-filled verdure of an unburdening landscape of pure bliss.

​Everything we possibly need is above, beneath and all around us, whether we are in a city or in the countryside, beauty surrounds us, take the time to truly look, hear, feel and immerse yourself in nature.