Summer 2013

Merlot - Lovely.

Yes, cuckoo's are uplifting, aren't they.

Algarve! No wonder yours ahead of mine. Mines been in for 30 years now. The one in the greenhouse is younger and is in full leaf. I've never had grapes from it as it gets the mould every year!

Thank you, Soop, dusty and Bags. I always mark the day when I hear the first cuckoo. DH laughs at me but I find it so uplifting.

Apologies to Merlot,I meant to say that I'd enjoyed her verse as well.
Galen I'm in the Algarve but inland,up in the hills. Yes the vine is an outdoor one,very old one that came with the cottage. The grapes are small and very sweet with loads of pips. Someone passing by chatting this time last year, just calmly took off the excess grapes for us,I wish I could remember who it was.

Where are you dusty?and is your vine an outdoor one?

That couplet is lovely, merlot .

Huh, ^ our^ vine has got little bunches of grapes on it
One of my local natural history books calls the next two weeks "Prelude to summer"....... today feels more like the middle of winter.

My vine has just started to burst into leaf! Whew! I was getting worried. Only the mulberry to get going now. Everything is so late.

merlotgran Thank you for those beautiful words.

Erasing from the memory, the winter....dark and long,
Accomplished in a heartbeat when I hear the cuckoo's song.

Sunshine all day. Delphiniums racing up their stakes.

Butty
Sun out here. Aquilegias just getting going.

Lovely, Butty

Aren't seasons miraculous
And contrary
Particularly this one.
All that growth
Green shoots, plump buds, then blossom snow.
No wonder imagery of Spring's so bright
Full with signs of renewal
And later,
Abundance.
It's all that rain.....and sunshine.

Can't take Shakespeare at this time in the morning when I'm running late for work![flustered] emoticon

Soon, I hope Jess.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.
Summer's lease does not appear to have even started.

Your last line made me , jess. Hope you get some warmth soon. Just been out shooting a few arrows – testing my chest after a yuck cold. It's sunny but cool out after showers all day. The best bit was hearing both a willow warbler and a chiffchaff, plus the usual great tits and blackbirds, not forgetting the local cuckoo.

Time for some evening (fruity) tea.

Glad some of you are getting summery weather and feeling so inspired. I've come back from warm WA to very cool showery weather here in the S of England. Went out for a walk lunchtime and wished for scarf and gloves (despite merino jumper, fleece jumper, hat, waterproof trousers and mac zipped right up.) It's not just me - we're well below seasonal average temp.
Looks very pretty and green - but a bit of sun would help the jet lag. And maybe even the poetic streak

Lovely reading these.

Hope you get some soon Galen.

Pair of bluetits mating on the feeder
Solar fountain tinkling in the pool
Can this mean
Sun?
Oh! It's gone in again
Now comes the rain

Gannets over the loch,
Gliding, plunging.
Clouds hiding the hills
That yesterday were snowy.
Light branches of wild cherry and birch
Swaying in a soft, moist air
That drips off the roof.
Old spruce, laden and colourful
With new cones and new green.

Butty I do wish I was poetry inclined

It is, isn't it Glamm.

Nice to read first thing in the morning Bags what a lovely start to the day.

Lovely, butty

And I have woken to a bright morning
After rain all day yesterday.
Pinks in the clouds
As I came over the glen pass last night,
Golds in them this morning.
And they are crossing the sky
The other way.