Week 17
The oak and the ash
Hello! What beauties we are experiencing this week… Here there are now a couple of tomato plants out on the veranda (in at night), I have walked in the park with no winter coat on, and we have switched on the swift box sound system! We eagerly watch the skies for potential customers… Our street’s swifts usually arrive in the first week of May, but I keep hearing rumours of them being spotted early elsewhere. I will of course keep you informed, and post my traditional pictures of a bit of empty blue sky and a telephone wire that they have just flown past.
This is our community post in which we chart the seasons week by week, asking the question: what has been particular or seasonal about this week? I tell you mine and then you tell me yours.
The oak and the ash
Last spring had lots of people talking about the old weather saying ‘Oak before ash, in for a splash, ash before oak, in for a soak’ - the oak came out first, and it went on to be a dry year. Well…same again this year? There are a few pairings of oak and ash around my neighbourhood and I am seeing this in all of them. how about yours?
A couple of bonus bits this week as I have been off on my adventures, first calling in on the wonderful Ann-Marie Powell who is one of my favourite people in the world.
I’m sure you all follow her substack already but if not you are missing out.
And her tulips…in her gorgeous garden.
I was on my way to a glorious day at Knepp Estate, rewilded home of beavers, storks, nightingales, cuckoos, wild ponies and much, much more, for the launch of Ffern’s spring fragrance. A really special day, and as beautifully put together as you would imagine. (And in case you don’t know, I present Ffern’s podcast, As the Season Turns, and you can find it below.)
We ate a beautiful lunch and went on a Knepp safari and heard nightingales! Sound up.
That’s it from me, now over to you. What have you seen/heard/smelt/eaten etc…this week that felt very ‘this week of the year’? Answers in the comments please!
Bluebell peeping! They were particularly gorgeous in the dappled sunshine, with a soundtrack of wrens, blackbirds and robins
Spotless clear blue skies, wishing that nagging north wind could stop blowing for once but happy that it's sunny at least
That luminous yellow green that newly unfurled leaves have in spring
Looking for Lyrid meteors on those super clear nights, the cat curled up on me keeping me warm, Ursa Major keeping watch above my head.
The swallows are back, the lilac is out and the poplar tree's a-shimmering. What a week!