The fluffy garden, an orchard update, a special field corner
Or...Week 16
Hello,
I love it when a consensus is reached in the comments on this weekly post about all things seasonal, and last week it was…first swallows! With several sightings among you. Such an important and impressive one, thank you as ever for your contributions. I am unlikely to spot swallows myself here and instead will be hanging out for the arrival of the swifts in…eek just a couple of weeks’ time! Watch this space, though I am very unlikely to catch a good picture. Swoosh.
In case you don’t know, in this weekly post I write about three things I have spotted that feel particularly ‘this week’, and then you respond with yours in the comments. I start with a round up of your previous week’s comments. Here’s your Week 15:
Mint, back from the dead; ducks chasing each other and tomcats yowling; crab apple blossom; verges of primrose, daffodil and cuckoo flowers; foraging for wild garlic with deer for company; nettles growing like a silently encroaching army; skylarks nesting; chiffchaffs chiffchaffing; Canada geese laying their eggs (and hissing) along the Leeds to Liverpool canal; hot cross buns, cinnamon rolls, primroses and cowslips; church services for Greek Holy Week…and from the southern hemisphere…the orange, foxy and ginger-coloured leaves of an autumnal NZ Easter.
Thank you!
Here’s my Week 16:
The fluffy garden
This week is the start of the part of the year when the garden moves from bare with a few buds to looking almost fluffy with new green growth and blossom. There’s a few weeks of this, perhaps culminating when our lilacs bloom while the blossom of the crab apple and pear are still out. After which everything suddenly goes very green for a while in my garden, before the summer flowers kick in, which is lovely enough of course and I don’t mean to seem ungrateful but it’s a little sad after all the fluff. This is a very pretty bit indeed and I’m glad that it’s here.
Overnight orchard update
Remember the overnight orchard that sprung up in the park a while ago? Check it out now! We have growth. I thought you might like to see.
A special field corner
This beautiful little corner of a field on my woods walk has been cordoned off in previous years, to protect its special inhabitants - cowslips…I believe. I love to see evidence of humans being thoughtful and excellent and so I didn’t actually mind the cordon, but clearly this population is considered robust enough to do without it now, which can only be a good thing.
Now over to you. What have you spotted/eaten/felt/made/sniffed this week that felt particular to this week?
The first peony has bloomed, buttercups are creating beautiful yellow meadows, and I’ve unpacked my sandals from winter storage.
Love the update from the overnight orchard and what a great name for it. My three things have to start with all the green alkanet and forget-me-nots I’ve seen, brightening all the dark garden corners and between the paving stones. Second has to be walking home from my 7pm lecture in the light for the first time and hearing the song thrushes singing their hearts out, set against a pale blue sky with the faintest rosy clouds, like a painting where the artist has gently smudged them in with the edge of their thumb. And thirdly, the tiny, tenderest oak leaves growing on the campus trees, all wrinkled and almost translucent. So delicate and small. I walk past every morning now, willing then on!