Our Craft and Country columnist Emma Pritchard looks to nature to gather inspiration this Valentine's Day, ponders the significance of the humble snowdrop and licks her lips in anticipation of chocolate creations in the kitchen
As you celebrate Valentine’s Day this month, look outside and witness the fascinating romantic gestures of nature
Great crested grebes (podiceps cristatus) gain an ornate crown of feathers during their spring mating season and then partake in an elaborate courtship. After diving for clumps of weeds to present to their chosen partners, they’ll raise themselves up and down from the water as if in dance.
The red velvet mite (trombidium holosericeum), meanwhile, has a different method of seduction and lures his mate to an aptly named ‘love garden’ or lair, by weaving a silk thread for the female to follow.
But perhaps it is the male scorpion fly (panorpa communis) that is a particular Casanova, gathering and giving bundles of dead insects as wooing gifts.
For more information, visit: http://surreywildlifetrust.org
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Gather edible sweet violets from hedgerows and treat your loved one to countryside-inspired truffles with a recipe by Epsom's Sara Jane Chocolates
You will need... (for 28-30 chocolates)
44g whipping cream
19g glucose
125g dark chocolate (broken into very small pieces)
75g butter (room temperature)
400g milk chocolate melted
sweet violets
1 large egg white loosened with drops of cold water
55g caster sugar.
1 Combine cream and glucose in a saucepan, and bring to the boil.
2 Place dark chocolate in a bowl and pour the warm liquid over the top. Stir gently, until the pieces melt and ingredients are mixed.
3 Allow this ganache to cool to 30°C before adding the butter to the pan. Stir.
4 Place this mixture into a piping bag then form ten pence piece-sized truffles on greaseproof paper. Leave to cool in a fridge.
5 Dip each truffle in melted milk chocolate and place on greaseproof paper to set.
6 To decorate with crystallised sweet violets, coat flowers with egg white using a paintbrush, dust with sugar and put on a lined baking tray to dry. Gently position on truffles, fixing with melted chocolate.
http://sarajanechocolates.co.uk
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With its milky white petals and gracefully bowing head, the arrival of the snowdrop tells us spring is on its way. Enjoy them at one of the county’s many displays
Polesden Lacy, Great Bookham
Walk among more than 20 varieties of snowdrop in the Winter Garden, plus the butter yellow flowers of winter aconite and sweet-smelling shrubs such as Christmas box and wintersweet. The impressive Persian ironwood trees should also be in bloom.
Chalk Lane, Epsom
In 1932, Lady Sybil Grant of The Durdans in Chalk Lane picked and sold bunches of snowdrops to raise money for soldiers wounded in the Great War – a tradition continued by the Lest We Forget Association for many years.
Painshill, Cobham
ollow a dedicated snowdrop walk to admire the varieties, galanthus nivalis and galanthus nivalis flore pleno, that flourish around the Mausoleum and by the Cascade. Identify the latter by their honey-scented and double-layered flowers.
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Craft & Country appears every month in The Surrey Downs Magazine, The Guildford Magazine, The Woking Magazine, The Elmbridge Magazine and The Kingston Magazine.
Or for more countryside and creative inspiration, visit Emma's blog: craftandcountry.com or follow her rural musings on Twitter @craftandcountry
