Spring came with an abundance of blossom on many of the trees and wonderful floral smells. We plant spring flowers on the graves and as there are now graves in most locations, so many areas are full of colour. One customer planted the stunning Fritillaria meleagris (Snakes-head Fritillary) on an ashes plot and it is the third year they have come up. This species is said to be native to the UK, although some do question this. The species can now only be found growing wild in a handful of
meadows in southern and central England. Apparently, the first reference to it growing in the wild is as relatively recent as 1736, despite already being known from gardens some 150 years earlier. But whatever its origins, the sight of a field ablaze with the drooping, chequered patterned, wine-red heads must be a wonderful sight. Under ideal conditions the plant will multiply and naturalize, spreading readily by seed. Hopefully the ones here will spread into the adjoining wildflower meadow area at some point. They flower from March to June.
The starlings and fieldfares went in March but we welcomed back the blackcap, willow warbler, garden warbler, swallow and whitethroat. We have seen goshawks a few times. Butterflies seen included the brimstone, peacock, red admiral, comma, small tortoiseshell, orange tip, ringlet, specked wood, small and large white.
The hawthorn fly or St Marks fly was out in abundance on St Marks day on the 25th – living up to its name. Hundreds of this long, black, shiny fly were flying amongst the small lime tree blossoms in the sunshine.
The tadpoles are developing well and we found a large frog that had deposited itself in one of the prepared graves. We check prepared graves carefully before each funeral to ensure that any creatures that have dropped into the holes can be safely retrieved and released a safe distance from the hole.
Alt-y-garreg is a 20-acre nature reserve created in 2010 from four fields that had been improved pasture. There are areas of new woodland (over eighteen thousand trees of eighteen native species), wildflower meadows, scrub and ancient hedgerows. Two of the fields are now a natural burial site. The area is teeming with wildlife. A list of species we have seen on the site can be found here.