Country diary: The bluebells are back and the ferns are rampant | Virginia Spiers

St Dominic, Tamar Valley: As spring progresses, the luminous beech foliage and thick cherry blossom have gone, and I find a grass snake sunning itself Rain in early May has helped alleviate the dearth of April showers. Along narrow lanes, the drifts of bluebells, interspersed with cow parsley, campions and seeding stitchwort, are already overwhelmed by ferns. The succession of buckler, lady, hart’s-tongue, male, scaly male and soft shield – the latest to unfurl from its crozier-like fronds – will soon be topped by rampant bracken, now entwined in bryony. Swags of hawthorn blossom overhang neglected uncut hedgerows, and landmark clumps of beech have lost that initial pellucidity of luminous foliage. Like linear stunted woods, the battered, regularly shorn deciduous growth on hedgebanks sprouts a diversity of greenery. Before breakfast, I mooch around our cool woodland garden, where the melodious song of blackcaps now joins that of chiffchaff, competing with the piercing song of wren. The exceptionally thick blossoms of cherry, pear and apple are all finished, much of it blown off in cold east winds before the end of April. Short-lived but particularly beautiful was the white foam of