A day starting cold, but rapidly warming up in the sunshine. I tale the 104 bus to Cottingham and alight in the centre of the village. I make my way to Northgate and walk west to Harland Way and then Wood Hill way. The North side of Cottingham is dotted with places with 'wood' in them: Wood Hill, Norwood, Pillwoods, Jillywoods, Platwoods. The only actual wood remaining is Birkhill Wood, which is partly a plantation. Not all is lost, as woodland trees and groundplants, at last many, survive in the hedges and lanes. As I climb Harland Way, Dog Mercury, Cuckoo Pint and Ramsons carpet the thin wooded strips by the road. My walk today is mainly to record this relict woodland flora. I can't believe that there are already flowering Bluebells on the boundary of the Golf course. A Brown Hare bounds apparently following some scent as it zigzags slowly on a ploughed field. I carry on to Burn Farm and then turn towards Jillywood lane. There I find my first patch of Wood Anemones, just on a grassy bank by a ditch. My favourite stretch is the double hedge that runs along Jillywood lane, with ramsons, greated stichtword and evidence of some coppiced hazel and ash. A Lapwing is sitting on a grassy field in the distance. I turn round as I approach the end of the lane and return by Burn Park cottages and Park Lane.
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