The Purple Beech starts the year with autumnal shades of orange.
It's days like today that make it so hard for us to even imagine leaving the peace and beauty of our little valley. I think even Peter is rethinking his plan to live closer to 'civilisation' when we are older but it is going to be hard to find somewhere that matches this place.
The atmosphere in the garden has been truly magical as all weekend long the air has been filled with a blizzard of fluffy white willow seeds blowing and dancing in the gentle breeze. (The white specks on the picture above.) The sound of birdsong resounded through the valley, apart from when Paul got on his industrial sized ride-on mower to cut the field or the contractors zoomed around at the top of the hill collecting the cut grass for silage. The song thrush sat in his perch almost at the top of the highest tree to sing his heart out both morning and evening as he does every day.
I'm not so sure that the spiders appreciated their webs being filled with fluff instead of nice juicy flies. As I walked through the garden I could occasionally catch the sunlight glinting on the on the singles strands of silk, sometimes 10ft+ long, spun by little spiders that launch themselves into the breeze. It has just been such a lovely warm day, 22C in the shade and at least 27C in the sun. I put on the final coat of gloss paint , pulled up lots of stinging nettles, did some school work and ended the day having a barbecue with Peter and Linas. They had the barbecue while I filled up on cooked cauliflower drizzled with some tadziki.
A male orange tipped butterfly feeding on the aubretia.PS I do have the flower Snow-in-Summer which is just beginning to come into flower.
