Home Walks Photos Archive 2004		Cricklade and the Snakes Head Fritilliaries - 1 May 2004

	Mike and Heather have planned a May Day holiday walk to see the rare Snakes Head Fritilliaries, imagining beautiful Spring weather such as this photo taken a week ago.
	Cricklade is the site of this now unusual habital, a large traditionally farmed water meadow.
	Are we downhearted at the weather? It appears not!
	Not much more rain to endure before we reach North Meadow. Here we cross the infant River Thames.
	We did see the fritillaries, a week older than this photo, and decidedly wetter. I promised I would put these photos on the website so that walkers could see what they might had the weather been kinder.
	We stopped to study the interpretation board.
	The site is over a kilometre long.
	As we finished reading this board we were very pleasantly surprised to meet an English Nature warden. She agreed to give us an impromptu 5 minute talk, and enlightened us on the history and importance of the site.
	The general scene a week ago, with purple and white fritillaries mixing with dandelions, also at their peak.
	It is worth visiting again before the end of June to see a succession of hay meadow flowers. The hay is cut in July.