Hazel, pine, poplar

It rained steadily till mid-afternoon, and at this point was still gloomy and damp, the downs soft and pale in the mist. When a sudden stray sunbeam found its way through the clouds, it illuminated the beautiful golden green of the new poplar leaves, and I took the camera to the balcony, arriving just a little too late to capture the moment. I initially tried focusing just on the poplar, which is at the bottom corner of the orchard, a considerable distance from the two garden trees. However, its pale colour and more delicate structure prevented it from shining through, so I tried alternative versions. This one focuses on the pine to show the detail of the new shoots, and is probably the best of a poor bunch - but it's the only photography I attempted all day.

It wasn't a bad day though. I did a lot of cleaning and clearing out in our very messy garden room, which has turned into something of an extended porch, far too full of muddy wellies, secateurs, seedlings in propagators and lots of things (many of which were left behind by the previous owners) waiting to be moved on via Freecycle or ebay when I get round to photographing them and writing descriptions. It's far from finished, but I had despaired of the floor, and was encouraged both to see more of it and to find that, with a bit of application, it scrubbed up almost like new. I'm currently unusually motivated by cleaning and by (gradual) progress towards my vision of a less cluttered and more attractive home, so I'm trying to make the most of the motivation while it lasts. 

Around mid-afternoon J pleaded for cake, reminding me that there was leftover whipped cream in the fridge which needed using, so I caved in and agreed to a quick mug cake. We made a basic eggless chocolate cake (because we had eaten all the eggs) and added a bit of hazelnut essence and quite a lot of raspberries from the freezer. It turned out extremely well, more of a pudding than a cake (which is normal for our quick, microwaved mug cakes, which we make in a shallow basin). The raspberries added lots of flavour, and it brightened the gloomy afternoon.