I know a bank….

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:


What an amazing year for violets, their pretty faces warmed by the sun rather than splashed with mud. This bank is on back way into the farm and I’ve never seen it like this.  I have even had heartsease, the wild field pansy in the garden.  

I’ve always wondered how Shakespeare had violets and cowslips flowering at the same time as  honeysuckle and wild roses but maybe it’s Oberon that’s a bit hazy botanically!  

Working at home day, got a lot done and two good walks.  The first was early up into the woods where the sound of birdsong was astonishing. I recorded it on the Merlin app and it came, rather optimistically I think, to 14 different species.  I am trying to learn birdsong but feel a bit cloth-eared about it.  

I think it’s going to rain overnight which is good for the farmers and the garden. 

Watched the last episode of Paradise which wrapped things up neatly but with an enough of a left field curveball to be interesting