barley brushes

back to Holt Lowes for a late walk yesterday. I have avoided it for about six weeks because adders in their mating season make it an unsafe place to take dogs. the evening sunshine lit up all the new leaves, and we enjoyed a wonderful walk, encountering a roebuck in the pine tree plantation. I have seen a buck in there before, standing on the barrow, one of those which has given the Lowes its name.

bracken fronds are just beginning to uncurl, and male ferns are in full foliage. the gorse has mostly finished flowering, but broom still has all its flowers on.

the ground is still quite bare. it needs a good rain and warm temperatures to grow some cover. in the middle of the heath, a single apple tree, probably a crab, in flower.

back home, the kiln was cooling off after a biscuit firing. two pots made from the mix of the plain crank and the reclaim bucket I wedged up the other day. it has some extra grog in it, and a tendency to split and crumble, which the crank on its own won’t do. better for my needs.

a bumble bee on the red campion in my garden at 7.30 pm.

this morning there was a hare at the edge of the wood. it eyed me suspiciously for a while as we approached, but stayed long enough for this shot. it was hidden enough by the grass that the dogs, behind me as dogs under control should be, didn’t see it.

along Clip Street the seven figs trees hanging over the garden walls are full of little figs, with the leaves about halfway out.

and now all the winter sown barley is beginning to sprout soft heads like upright brushes, bright green against the blue of the stalk-shafts.