As a boy I learned about natural history, from the books of Bramwell Evans and his stories of Romany and Raq. His tales of travelling the countryside in a horse drawn Romany caravan, a Vardo, accompanied by his faithful spaniel Raq,

These stories guided me through the plants and birds to be seen in the English countryside, and today I still use that knowledge as I stroll through the lanes and countryside near my home.

Starting in February as the snow clears from the ground, the first sign of spring emerging are shown by the snowdrops raising their heads from the frozen ground. These are followed as March follows February with the bluebells; they cast their blue glow and their perfume beneath the leafless trees. As the bluebells slowly lower their heads they are followed by the buttercup like celandines and the wood anemones with the delicate tracery on their petals. In the trees overhead I hear the snapping of the wings of the wood pigeon and the alarm calls of the Blackbird, Blue Tits, Great Tits and Chaffinches

The sap rises and the woodland floor becomes shaded as the trees are arrayed in their new leaves. As we moved into April the dandelions raise their golden heads from the grass verges reaching a crescendo of blooms by St Georges Day, Shakespeare's birthday, when they are traditionally collected for dandelion wine.  The hedge bottoms become a backdrop for new spring growth, the star like white blooms of the Stitchwort that wise women collected for medicine. Rising towards the light comes the garlic mustard, often knows as ‘Jack by the hedge’ by country folk. In the boggier areas of land the white flowers of wild garlic wave in the gentle breeze spreading the garlic smell around.

This profusion of wildflowers pushing their heads from the slowly warming Earth encourages me on get my camera from my rucksack to add more photographs to my wild flower collection.  I walked on down Euxton Lane, which back in the distant past used to be Know Lane, and at the time of the English Civil War was part of the estate of Buckshaw Hall. This hall was built in 1652 by Edward Robinson, Major Robinson had fought for the parliamentarians, the Roundheads, and moved to Euxton from Newton with Scales where his family home had been located. He purchased the land from the Andertons of Euxton Hall along with three other parcels of land which he purchased from the Treason Trustees for £1600, probably around £3.1 million when compared with today's earnings. Major Robinson is credited with the authorship of “A discourse on the war in Lancashire”, and it appears he did rather well financially from the Civil War.

I turn into Whinney Lane, and on the field boundary is a marker post with the initials ER and the date 1652, almost certainly indicating the edge of Edward Robinson's estate. Strolling on down the lane I move away from thoughts of history to natural history, the delicate pink flowers of Herb Robert, (Geranium Roberti anum) are in profusion together with Cuckoo Flower and the white nodding heads of Cow Parsley. Dropping my rucksack to the ground I attach my Canon digital camera to the tripod and focus on the blooms. I set the aperture wide to reduce the depth of focus and throw the background into a pleasing blur. When I get home I'll download them into Photoshop to select the best of my photographs. In the meadows at either side of the late great flocks of rooks rise cawing noisily as the farmer approaches the field in his tractor. I cut through the footpath from Whinney Lane to Pear Tree Lane and as I approach the farm dozens of barn swallows swoop across the fields in search of insects. They have just returned from their winter in South Africa and it's good to see them again in their usual haunts.

As I emerged from Pear tree Lane I can see the fences of the Fire Brigade training centre, Washington Hall, which was renamed during World War II when American troops were based here. In  less than a mile I have moved from the English Civil War to World War II. A mere 300 years of Britain's long history. The American army didn't want to be based in German Lane, as it was then called, so renamed it Washington Lane. The fields surrounding the training centre are filled with horses quietly grazing, but as they move their feet disturb the insects and the barn swallows swoop in search of food.

It’s been a great walk and I have taken some super photographs that dark clouds are pushing forward in the breeze foretelling rain in the very near future, I pack the camera away safely and set off for home at a brisk pace.