Exted Hill, mid-May

This is our May landscape: lush grass, trees greening fast, every roadside verge a froth of cow parsley, meadows full of buttercups, dandelions and daisies, arable fields sprouting fine lines of green shoots. It was a perfect morning for a walk and from the far end of the village I turned up Exted Hill. Only the first short stretch of the walk is up the lane; from the first bend, a good, grassy path at the other side of the hedge follows the lane alongside the paddocks of the poultry farm, dotted with ducks and geese. I like seeing them, but they are too securely fenced for satisfactory photography. I rejoined the road briefly at the top of the ridge, at the hamlet of Exted, then turned down the steep, stony track through a strip of woodland which crosses the broad end of the Exted valley on a kind of causeway beside a hedge to reach the centuries old farm at Mountbottom. I diverted onto a footpath across a field past grazing horses then up the steep flight of grassy steps to the top of a lane which took me back down into the village. It was a joy to be out there with the trees, the clouds and the cow parsley - I do love cow parsley!