ripening barley

somewhat idyllic view a hundred yards or so from my house. we lost one of these ash trees by the pond last year – now there are only three.

this year it has been quite a dry summer and the pond has shrunk. here in North Norfolk we are in a rain shadow.

the barley is ripening and turning that beautiful blonde colour.  one early evening last week I saw a roe doe lying with her ears just sticking up above the crop in a field of barley in Gunthorpe. as I walked past the grey ears and the forehead swivelled to keep me in her radar, but she must have thought herself well hidden as long as she couldn’t see me.

further up the lane the hedgerow lime tree flowers have opened up from little green balls into bunches of stamens, insect heaven among the pale green chandeliers.

the trees have put on a spurt of growth and there are new leaves at the end of  every twig. I wonder if there is an increase in branch and trunk length at the same time.

hogweed dominates the roadside banks, towering over the rest with its intricately structured umbrellas of flower, each a little different.

my eye is drawn to each new stalk and pattern as I walk past. but my eye is more selective than the camera, and they fade into the background.

the last few weeks have been taken up with knitwear design and so I am only just getting back into the pottery studio. I have to make some pieces for my friend Gas Kimishima’s anagama kiln, for an eight day firing during the last week of July, and I want them to be really special, but the knitting keeps stealing my attention, and I am not coming up with anything worthwhile just yet.