Lambstails

A dull and dark day. Bumped into my neighbour in the village shop. She was widowed last September, her husband had suffered cruelly with Motor Neuron Disease. It was horrendous. She is facing life again with courage and her brother has moved back from Spain and is staying with her while he finds work and a new home for his family. He was a builder there and apparently the Spanish authorities have taken the licences away from non-Spanish builders during the country's bad financial situation. But Spain is in the Common Market and so are we ...??? Anyway, she and I have made plans to go to the cinema next week.

Inspiration was lacking today although I had tried out a couple of ideas but finally decided to go for these Catkins I found in the hedgerow at dusk. These are the Lambstails, or male flowers, which will soon produce pollen. The female flower is hardly showing - the little brown buds with a red dot. They belong to the Common Hazel (Corylus avellana). The name Avellana is derived from the Italian town of Avella. In the 16th century the species was called the "wild nut of Avella" by Leonhart Fuch. The nuts are a favourite but here the squirrels steal them before they are ripe and so we never get a chance ! We still have the remains of hazel coppicing on the farm - the sticks or rods were grown for making sheep hurdles many years ago.