In Search of Snowdrops

Today I visited a 15th-century church on the Harewood Estate. I had been told that the church graveyard would be covered with masses of snowdrop flowers. I had always thought the snowdrops were wildflowers but they have been purposely planted in cemeteries because they bloom in the wintertime. While taking my photos I could hear red kites calling in the distance. I scanned the skies but could not see them. Nearby, several kinds of small birds twittered and fluttered about, making me wish I had also brought my binoculars. Though the church dates from the 15th century, most of the well-tended gravestones dated from the late 1700s to early 1800s. In the field near the path to the church, roe deer were grazing. We were up on a hill and in the distance I could see the A61 roadway that I had taken to Harewood. But I felt as if I could have been a couple hundred miles away. Or was it a couple hundred years away?