Taking advantage of the lovely weather I went walking again this morning with a huge, pale blue sky overhead adorned only with a few streaks of thin cirrus. As I walked up the first rise of Frog Firle a chiff chaff, a green woodpecker, skylarks and a distant pheasant greeted my ears. Up on the escarpment that runs pararell with the river, I found the valley below filled with thick mist which seemed to glow from within amidst the bright sunshine. Up here the turf still remains pretty devoid of bloom but I came across a beautiful patch of dog violets in flower.
Descending the treacherous slope into the valley, I found lots of viper's bugloss plants beginning to poke through and bramble bursting into leaf. Suddenly, a group of shellduck feeding on the slope nearby, took noisily to flight.
Down in the valley the damp grass was adorned with lots of little, dew-sparkled cobwebs. For a while the path here swings away from the river, and is lined with patches of scrub; elder bursting into leaf and blackthorn not yet in bloom. As well as banks of arum, nettle and hemlock, big circles of thistle, houndstongue, and greater burdock are beginning to send up new growth. I also discovered a dog rose bursting into leaf, lots of last year's teasal, and the lovely, silvery grey foliage of silverweed.
Further along can be found a large patch of comfrey already beginning to bloom under the trees. Here I paused to sit, drinking in the sights and sounds and the stillness around me.
Down in the valley the damp grass was adorned with lots of little, dew-sparkled cobwebs. For a while the path here swings away from the river, and is lined with patches of scrub; elder bursting into leaf and blackthorn not yet in bloom. As well as banks of arum, nettle and hemlock, big circles of thistle, houndstongue, and greater burdock are beginning to send up new growth. I also discovered a dog rose bursting into leaf, lots of last year's teasal, and the lovely, silvery grey foliage of silverweed.
Further along can be found a large patch of comfrey already beginning to bloom under the trees. Here I paused to sit, drinking in the sights and sounds and the stillness around me.
Alongside the dykes, water dock is beginning to show amongst the tangle of dead stalks and foliage remaining from last year's vegetation. And what a thrill it was to discover common water crowfoot beginning to bloom!