Bluebells

It's that time of year again.  The Bluebells are carpeting the woodland floor and filling the warm, spring air with their hyacinth-like scent.  It was so beautiful this morning as we walked through Mapperley Wood, we didn't want to come home.

Malcolm too was enjoying the sunshine and the flowers.

The smile says it all...

Recently arrived Whitethroats (Sylvia communis) were adding their songs to those of the other summer migrants and the Skylarks were soaring into the sky with their seemingly unending song.  Simply beautiful.  As we walked around Mapperley Reservoir, the Forget-Me-Nots were also blooming along the footpath edge.

Lastly for today, the delicate pink flowers of the Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratensis) were lifting their faces to the sun.  These pretty members of the cabbage family are a great favourite of the Orange Tip Butterflies which were flitting around.  Although I didn't notice it at the time, I managed to catch a small predator sitting on one of the flowers.  A Crab Spider can be seen if you look closely sitting on a flower waiting to pounce on one of the aforementioned Orange Tips.  Click the picture to get a larger version and see if you can spot it.