Dartmoor Snowdrop Report

By: Blonde Two

Yesterday, like a true galanthophile, I set out on a snowdrop hunt equipped with tea flasks, rocky road biscuit cake, a sister and Not-At-All-Blonde.  We parked at Parke (where else?) and started our hunt in the orchard.  We didn’t stay there long because snowdrops were not really apparent and there were no apples to scrump (have never done that).

A Blonde Bimble with a bit if nav training for Not-At-All followed – across a field, through the woods, along the lanes.  It was good exercise and fun but revealed no further evidence of Gallanthus Nivalis.  Desperation led to a fair amount of peering over the gates of some quite posh houses, we didn’t have to test our “sneaking into people’s gardens” nerve because we didn’t spot a single snowdrop but Not-At-All-Blonde made a brave offer to go and knock on some doors if we continued to fail in our quest.

There may or may not have been a slight wrong turn at some point which led to some rather grumpy advice from a local about walking down footpaths instead of roads.  As it turned out, it was a felicitous error because, as we turned back into the gateway at Parke, we found a beautiful snowdrop patch by which to have our cake and tea.

That was it then, the snowdrop hunt went from strength to strength.  After a bit of rather impressive (not us) tree investigation, we happened upon a patch of double snowdrops. Apparently not rare but I hadn’t seen them in real life before.  These little darlings were almost certainly Blondes – a cunning mixture of sturdy and fancy.