Alder

Unusually for me, a two walk day. 

15yo was doing some fundraising for her engineering project in the morning, so I walked across the moor to Sconce, meeting my first bumblebee of the year at Moorside along the way. The Alder tree catkins were making a fine display, so I went for a closer look. Today’s image shows the long male catkins, the smaller red female flowers, and last year’s mature female flowers in the form of the cones.

It stayed sunnier than expected, so after lunch we both walked down the bank to Roberts Park and popped into Salt’s Mill, with afternoon refreshments at the Half Moon Café.