The celandines are late this year; at least, it seems that way to me. In the weeks running up to 26th March 2009, I was without a camera and I remember bewailing to myself that I couldn't take photos of celandines in flower. By the time I was up and running again, they had gone. (By 'celandines' I mean Ranunculus ficaria - and by 'late' I mean 'later than last year' which may simply mean that last year they were early!)
And now my camera has gone to be mended. Such is life!
So . . . on my way to deliver it back to the shop where I bought it, I took photos of a tree and what is growing on and round it. I know I was promising more fungi - but there has been much disruption in the woods recently and the branches it was growing on were upturned and moved around. Even the lump of wood with the whiteish, slug-like fungus which had burst out of a black shell is gone.
Some trees have been felled too. I'm hoping that, at the very least, the tree I have chosen for this post will still be there by the time my camera comes back! Then we'll see if the celandines are flowering.
(Message to people who look at my photos on Pictures Just Pictures each day - I have stacked up a couple of weeks' worth of photos which I'll use to cover this blip.)
So, here is the tree ( a sycamore, I think) up on a steep bank with a stream (which is sometimes a muddy ditch) at its foot. (It's the second from the left. This picture was taken a couple of weeks before the others on this post.) 
It has several trunks rising from its base, each very high.
Ivy grew on it but its stems have been severed before the tree is overwhelmed.
But it will return. You can't keep a good ivy down and it's on its way up already.
The tree itself has similarly re-generative desires. Its middle has been thinned but its middle may want to grow again!
At its foot is a patch of Arum maculatum. (That's the one with heart shaped leaves. The 'maculatum' bit means spotted. See the inky patches?) There's an Asplenium behind it. (Tall, pointed leaves with crimped edges.) 
Moving to the left, there are celandines (Ranunculus ficaria) between the roots of the tree. There are usually huge patches up and down the banks too. There seem to be fewer this year. Last year it was almost a cliff of yellow when they flowered.)
Left again and at the lower foot of the tree - another Asplenium.
When my camera comes back - I'll see how they've grown. (Our new family!)
P.S. The first picture was taken on 25th February 2010. All the others were taken on 8th March 2010.
