Summer 2013

A surprise tonight, after a long day of grey
A blue, deep blue sky
Criss-crossed with con-trails
And buzzards flying high

An evening still
Waiting for full night
An even deepening blue
Quieting the day.

...and what a sight that will be.

I must say i do like your poems Bags , do you write them ?

Old, old, woody ivy stems
Twined about a rusted post,
Enclosing it in a tight grasp.
I broke off the dead wood
And filled a log basket 
With pieces for kindling.

Elsewhere I photographed
The ever-increasing primroses
That grow on our front bank.
For six summers I have left off mowing
Until the plants have set seed,
Until the mother plant has generated
Side offshoots, making ever larger clumps
In ever larger numbers.
My hope is, some year, to look on
A whole bank primrose array
Each May.

It is that washed light now,
With the darkness washed from the sky
And the loch reflecting
Blue sky and rusty hills.

I can see it.

I love hares too - just occasionally am privileged to see them here. Also glimpsed a baby muntjac yesterday.

Our wild peacock is in his new finery, displaying that magnificent plumage and calling for a mate. The pheasants are squawking, the male with his harem of ladies.

We have primroses in abundance this year, plus sheets of shining golden celandine on the verges. Next we have bluebells to look forward to.

Spring (long awaited) is my favourite time of year.

Dark sea reflecting dark sky
With sunshine slanting low between them,
Lighting sail and rainbow,
Budding trees and painted houses,
Daffodils and primroses,
Yellow gorse and greening larch,
And last year's rushes
In the evening light
Glowing orange.

I love hares, when snow was on the ground we went for a drive and looked over snow covered fields, we counted 49 hare in one field and around the corner were another 19. Amazing! such beautiful creatures, my DH has many gorgeous photos of them

You people who see hares are so lucky!

Two greattits fighting on the feeder followed by a blackcap robin and bluetit. Then a dunnock.
On the way to work yesterday I saw pheasants and a deer. Today a hare!

. It's getting busy in your garden, B.

Gorse flowers and catkins,
With bees among them,
Young rowan leaves and sycamore buds,
Honeysuckle bursting green
Where two days ago 
Its colour blended with dead stalks
And a roe deer's olding winter coat.
And everywhere above the moss
And pignut leaves in lawns
Young grass shoots up
As the spring damps and warms.

Can't wait to go out listening for the Nightingale soon. Should be back in UK before long if not now. Amazing song. Really lifts the spirit as does the Blackcap, Garden Warbler and Song Thrush.

I too love the sound of the cuckoo. While on holiday in the Hebrides we heard and saw a cuckoo. I had bought my DH a cuckoo caller for Christmas. Thought I would try it out. We were wandering along this remote path by a loch - DH was a way ahead of me with his camera so I said I would walk back to the car and wait. I was cuckooing away - being answered by a real cuckoo - I came to a bend in the track and stood by a bush 'calling' I then heard a man say to his wife (the other side of the bush) "It's very near, lets stand here for a while and see if it shows itself" Needless to say I promptly put my cuckoo caller in my pocket and walked around the bend to be asked "Have you seen it, it's very very near" Oops!!! Luckily I was able to point out another further away sitting on a large pine top.

My spirits have been lifted by the sound of cuckoos this week. I don't know why we love them so much, there are prettier bird songs. At a garden centre I visited the other day, the indoor part contained a robin singing it's little heart out - beautiful!

I love waking up to bird song. Makes me feel in tune with my surroundings.

Noisy bird sitting in tree
Means an early start for me
Pillow over ears I tried
But still that silly bird cried
' wake up, wake up you silly hen
In bed you're no good to men
Get up and greet the lovely day
No more in bed, should you stay'
So I arose, and with a frown
Went to work in Bristol town

Too noisy at 5.24 this morning! Woke me up!

Listening to blackbirds singing . They should have been the song thrushes – much better singers than Turdus philomelos.

butty

Gentle white cherry blossom
Branched through early morning mist
Light and shadow
Penetrating paper screens.

A song of garden and sky. Lovely.

The chiffchaff or willow warbler
Flitting about in willow and birch
Made itself known today
As chiffchaff, calling
"Chiff chaff" as we shot arrows
In the garden.
Target archery to a chorus
Of "chiff chaff", the witterings
Of long-tailed tits, and the wild call
Of a buzzard is smile-worthy!
And then, in the background,
Somewhere unseen, "cuckoo, cuckoo!"
And a woodpecker's knock
Answering the arrow thuds.

I started planting my vegetable seeds in pots this afternoon. The potting compost, taken from an outside container was noticeably cold. So, despite the sun, there has still not been enough warmth to warm the soil.