After a busy and unexpected end to April, it took us a while to get out and about in the lanes around us. It wasn’t until the middle of the month that we headed down Moor Lane and out of the village, taking a chance with the April like showers that were turning up on a whim. We were lucky though and dodged the rain - well, when I say dodged, it looked like it might rain, and then it didn’t and then it did, but actually didn’t, so perhaps more correctly we dodged the chance of rain!
What was clear though since last month was that the cow parsley was out in force, not that I’m complaining, and the plants had a definite spring-like feel to them, which was also very welcome.
It’s a great sight to turn the corner and see the froth that is cow parsley, and here it was only just starting to come in to its own.
We walked perhaps more slowly than usual but reached our usual turning point of the bridge, a familiar shot in these posts and one where it’s looking quite verdant.
Turning back - as is our custom - we noticed that this tree was much later to leaf than others in the area. There were signs of leaf, but it too was taking things more easy it seems.
Our second amble of the month was a much earlier in the day than normal for us, but after the heat of the bank holiday (yes, who knew the forecasters were correct!) and much socialising I felt the need to move rather than hide from the thirty plus degree heat in the house.
We took the same route down Moor Lane, but this time on leaving the village we were rewarded with this beauty of a poppy growing as they do between a building and the boundary. It reminded me that I still have some seeds from my FIL’s garden which I really should do something with - I seem to remember that poppy seeds can be dormant for quite a while before springing back to life, so I’m hoping that’s in my favour!
But anyway, hasn’t the cow parsley grown from my photo earlier in this post - and in just a couple of weeks, but with sporadic rain and then plenty of sunshine it’s what you’d expect. What I wasn’t quite so prepared for were all the wild roses being in bloom, and their gloriously sweet scent in the early morning sun.
We’d hoped for more shade than there was on the road out of the village, and so instead decided to walk on the bridlepath towards Elston - it’s a path we’ve walked and shared here before, most usually when we’re off to the pub - but not today. It wouldn’t have been open anyway…
There were an array of plants to look at including this young oak tree edging the path, the dogwood in flower, the early fruits of the blackthorn, and yes more wild roses.
With no pub visit we reached the end of the path having achieved some shade and some dappled shade and so we turned and retraced our steps. This time as we headed towards the village a clump of oxeye daisies caught my eye - they’re beautiful and there’s plenty here as we head home, which reminded me I have some of those in a pot, which will definitely benefit from being divided as they get planted into our garden, or maybe even before.
I hadn’t expected there to be such a difference in just the two weeks between our two walks - but the weather had changed drastically, and so had the plants and hedgerows. Isn’t nature wonderful?
Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.