in May he’ll sing all day

or in May his song is true   – sadly I can’t tell as I’ve not heard a cuckoo at all this year. Last year I heard one at Holkham at least once a week, walking back from Lady Anne’s walk to the Wells car park on the landward side of the pine woods, and a neighbour has heard one passing through here. I’ve heard willow warblers a few times too, but not from the same spots, so I presume they too were passing through.

the lanes around the village are just beginning to get their summer clothes on

chervil instead of cow parsley

the bracken suddenly up  and filling previously grassy patches

alexanders fattening up seeds – they will turn black over the summer

white campion or bladder campion in the dry hedgerows

wild roses in the hedges, and creamy honeysuckle too but I forgot to take a photo –

a few poppies

plantains and knapweed

a photo of the lane from the cemetery to the village which really could have been taken any time in the last 150 years – if you take away the pole holding up the telephone and electricity lines.

we took the shady scramble along the edge of this big “prairie” field (it did have several hedges and was at least four smaller fields before the sixties) it was early and there was dew blueing the blades of grass, jewelled with buttercups and ground ivy

today the sea was a faint smudge – sometimes you can see the wind farms ten kilometres out

we saw a couple of hares, to B’s intense frustration

I never get the chance to attempt photographs, with her taking up both hands under these circumstances

the winter wheat starting to show ear spikes already, but along the edge of the wood here the deer have been nibbling it down and the ears are emerging through the shortened leaves/stems

bare patches along the edge too – is that where germination failed due to the wet winter, or did the deer eat it as it was germinating?

the soil structure is pretty poor here at the edge too, there was a lot of run off in the wet winter and the years before have seen potato cultivation with irrigation and then intensive crops and nothing put back into it. it’s like concrete now.

there’s still some cow parsley in the shade of Cake’s lane

or there was until this weekend, it’s just had a cut down this narrow part.

we walked another green lane last weekend, Swan lane in Sharrington

everywhere is pretty at this time of year

but the last week has seen things looking much drier. we haven’t had significant rain for about ten weeks, or even longer, since before lockdown, and higher sunshine hours than ever recorded.

I have planted so much in my vegetable patch it’s overflowing

here’s a new little space for extra broad beans

some more broad beans popped into tiny spaces. currently I am harvesting salad leaves, though I am plagued by something tunnelling in here which has ruined some of the new salad area and the seedlings are pushed around. I had to put the plastic tunnel over them to keep the birds off.

and lots of protection for the climbing beans

the roses are marvellous and very early

irises and peonies

in the wild part the guelder rose is very pretty

just now the oxe-eye daisies stand out

and the rambling rector rose is out-competing the dog rose to scramble up over the old plum and into the sycamore behind.

5 Comments

  1. Love the beautiful photography of glorious scenes of your part of the world, and your very special garden 🙂

  2. Lovely choice Hipster for these photos Jane. so soft & gentle, capturing the essence of late spring/early summer before it gets blowsy!

    1. thanks Biddy, yes, it’s almost over already, roses losing petals, the guelder rose flowers have turned brown, the tree leaves darker and denser …

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