Friday Skywatch

This is the hamlet where I live. On either side a field separates us from woodland. The fields have been tilled and sown for the new season and are a rich colour in the early evening sunlight. The moon has just slipped behind the low cloud.

It's a lovely sky for Skywatch Friday.

We've had no rainfall for weeks now and the ground is dry.

You could even describe it as parched!

In the woods the bluebells will soon be over.

Bracken is pushing up through the woodland floor, competing for the ground occupied by the bluebells. 

I'm enjoying this glorious colour while I can.

The garden in May

This is the view from the kitchen door. I like to walk round the garden in the morning when I first get up, it seems a good start to the day.

We've had little rain but plenty of cold winds over the last few weeks, so growth is slow and I've been loathe to do much work in the garden in these conditions.

The pond is in a bit of a mess.

But in spite of poor weather ferns are unfolding, flowers opening and the borders bushing out.

Ground elder grows well whatever the weather!

The tulips are almost over

and the barricades up in the veg garden.

Just waiting for some sunshine!

In the woods

This evening after tea we walked by the lake and into the woods.

For just a few short weeks each year the woodland floor is carpeted in blue.

Our native wild bluebell.

We've had no serious rainfall for weeks and the ground is dry. 

Pleasurable walking.

The new leaves are a fresh, bright green.

Other wild flowers mingle with the bluebells.

It's a lovely time of year.

An English cottage garden

We were invited for Sunday lunch with friends today.

Can you see the row of insect homes on the window ledge?

And a very healthy patch of white bleeding heart.

Their garden is in the true spirit of English cottage planting, where fruit and vegetables mix freely with both cultivated and wild flowers, the latter grown not only because they look lovely but also because they attract a variety of beneficial insects.

 

This method of planting creates healthy plants, 

all chemical free!

After a good wander round the garden we went inside for a delicious lunch.  On the table a bunch of flowers from the garden, honesty, forget-me-not, ragged robin, red campion and bluebells.
Please note that it is ILLEGAL to pick wild bluebells. These are  Spanish bluebells planted by the previous owners and are going to be removed at the end of the flowering period because bees pollinate them as well as our native wild ones to the ultimate detriment of our more delicate native species.

I had brought a bouquet from my garden of pink bluebells, abutilon, camellia and tree peony.

What pleasure there is in a garden!

Saying goodbye

We were all set to travel to Yorkshire when we heard that our friend in Cornwall had died. But the funeral details were unresolved and, with family scattered, the service might take some time, so we headed north for the Easter weekend. The First Born had booked her train ticket from London many months ago and opportunities for us to be together are rare. Then, of course, the funeral plans quickly came together and we had to rush back down to the south-west.
I like old graveyards, the old-fashioned names and the stories that can be gleaned from reading the headstones. This one in St Ives, as befits a fishing community, has gravestones with a good view out to sea.

Our friend lived further down the coast in a village that had been peopled by tin miners and the church and it's graveyard is set away from the sea with the hills at it's back. The vicar was keen to tell us that David was to be interred in the very last space, after which the graveyard would be closed. It's a lovely place.

The ground was carpeted with a profusion of spring flowers, violets, primroses and bluebells.

The old stone headstones are beautifully carved.

Here's the last plot.