Nespole di spagna

The winter flowering loquat fills the air with sweetness. Like winter hellebores that bloomed in January in St Margaret’s Bay.

Once thought to be in the same plant family as the medlar - known as the nespole di Germania - it is now classed differently. Produces early summer fruit something like a crunchy lychee.

We lost our first tree and have replanted. Apparently the leaves can be used for a tisane.

This one we saw climbing up from the Arno flood plain below Borgo in Collina. The extra is looking from the steep slope up to Borgo to the eponymous castle at Poppi.

Needless to say we had plenty of rain but it lifted for our walk. The light faded out to low cloud, the hills black, the forests and fields stern.