Travelling into London, the morning sun slowly warmed a freezing daybreak.

 Thinking back on memorable walks of the year this profusion of Buttercups comes to mind. The humble Buttercup is one of the most common of all wildflowers. A scene like this would have been familiar the length and breadth of the land. Yet to find an acreage of green pasture turned bright yellow is no longer commonplace. The area can't have been sprayed for a long time, if ever. Back in May I immersed myself in its aura.

 

 Uncommon wildflowers, part five. Allium ursinum is certainly not a rare species. Ramsons can be rampant in damp, shady places but wild plants are prolific only in the conditions that suit them. 

  A wet woodland teeming -and reeking- of 'Wild Garlic' is common enough in the West Country or Wales but scarce in Eastern England. Habitat loss has some bearing on that but as a rule of thumb westerly is wetter whereas East Anglia is classed as semi-arid.

 The free draining chalky soil around Hitchin is not conducive to A. ursinum. Nonetheless there is a damp dell carpeted with Ramsons near Sootfield Green. It's remarkable to think they must have colonised this spot after the ice age and have been growing here ever since.  

 

 Starting to harvest the Jerusalem Artichokes from the allotment, said to taste sweeter after the first frosts. Each stem is a clump of five or six tubers. The smaller go straight back in the earth for next year's crop, the larger are for eating. Even so that's a lot to get through! Not a popular vegetable here in the UK but I'll offer them to anyone who's interested.

 I use them in hearty winter soups and mashes. I make a point of grating them to make them more digestible. Their carbohydrate content takes the form of inulin rather than starch so they are an excellent source of prebiotic fibre. However the digestive system cannot break it down, in effect they are fermented by good bacteria in the colon. The results may be explosive!

 Roasting Jerusalem Artichokes is an option. Dear reader, I will never do that again following an occasion I prefer not to relate in the pages of this diary. Some people eat them raw in salads. Is that wise?? However I experience no ill effects if I grate them before cooking and they add a deliciously sweet/nutty flavour to the dish. 

 

 Season's greetings to one and all. Actually, it isn't snowing- blue sky and sunny today.

 

 Uncommon wildflowers, part four. Many common species have been made uncommon by habitat loss. Meadow Clary (Salvia pratensis) is now so rare that it made the national news when twelve plants were stolen from a nature reserve in Kent. 

 By contrast the conservation status of Wild Clary (Salvia verbenaca) is listed as of "least concern" on the GB Red List. None the less its distribution is localised in southern England, rare elsewhere and declining.

 I was surprised to find a substantial colony on Windmill Hill in my home town of Hitchin as seen above. Undoubtably a survival from the rural past which became surrounded by the expansion of the town during the twentieth century. A smaller stand can be seen about half a mile away on the margins of a playing field adjoining a council estate.

 

 Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day and the longest night. That means that summer is coming... eventually.