Today it´s Walpurgis and that is a big day over here (It is especially celebrated here in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech republic and Germany) . It´s not a national holiday but most people doesn´t work more than half day at the most. This is the day we welcome spring (and it is our kings birthday too). We have hughe bonfires all over the country and they are lit on Walpurgis night. When doing so choirs starts to sing old songs welcomming spring. But there won´t be any bonfire here in Falköping since someone lit it last night. Half of it burned down and whats left is so wet that they don´t think it´s possible to start a fire in it for many weeks. The fire departement didn´t save water when putting it out :-) :-)

Three different species of spring flowers beside my favourite road in the forest.

Lesser celandine, Ranunculus ficaria. It is said to be a terrible weed if taking it in to gardens. But not in my garden though. But it doesn´t suffocate any other flowers and after flowering it slowly dissaperes again.

Yellow Star Of Bethlehem, Gagea lutea.

Wood anemone, Anemone nemorosa. This can vary quite a lot in color. It isn´t unusual to find blue or pink ones. They can also be red or totally green but that is not so common.

Usually those holidays nowdays has a christian meaning, but I´ve been looking around after more to why we celebrate this holiday. It seemes we used to celebrate on this day on the Vernal Equinox andd it was to honor the dead. They belived that the border between life and death to be as thin as it could be on that day. But the Christians came and changed it to something that fitted the church better (a bit of a shame really, we could have had our own “los dias de muertos” over here :-) :-) ). This day we celebrate (most people doesn´t know it though :-) ) the holy Valborg (Walpurgis night is called Valborgsmässoafton in swedish).

They are a bit behind in my garden and the yeloow wood anemone has only small flower buds yet.

This is how it looks in my neighbours hedge. This is the reason some thinks Scilla sibirica is a weed :-) I love it and it´s allowed to spread like crazy in my garden :-)

Red trillium, Trillium erectum. This started out as one lonly flower, this year I´ll get seven :-) It´s the only species of trillium I have the others are hybrides.

According to legend She was an abbes and an english princess. She was called to germany to bring christianity to the pagans. I can´t find anything that tells why she afterwards is celebrated and used against wichcraft and evil spirits though.

It will be a rainy Walpurgis night and that is a good thing. Rainy holidays usually keeps the violence down and especially that violence towards women and children.

The Himalayan primula, Primula denticulata.

Wild primerose, Primula vulgaris.

Some liverworts just have a much deeper color than others.

Well now it´s time for a cup of tea, the weather doesn´t invite to outdoor activities even if the rain hasn´t started yet. Perhaps I´ll join my dogs and take a small nap to :-)

Have a great day now!