The first weekend of the summer and it was fabulous…all the better for coming as something of a very welcome surprise. Temperatures may well have only risen to 23c but it felt like a scorcher! So please excuse us for being very very lazy and just pottering about, walkies in the woods with the dogs, lunching on the patio, and apart from that, just drowsily sitting and staring. It was a first for this year and that is our excuse!
But before spring finally departs lets take one last look at the Bluebells. They are now dying back fast into hibernation till next spring….
but there are still the odd few standing proud in the shade of the woods…..
Please also take what may well be a last look at these woodland Rhododendrons. I say last look for if the conservationist have their wish these will be cut down or scrubbed up like so many others have been in these woods. They say they are none native, but like so many of todays conservation arguments it is rather false. They say they are fine in gardens and estate parkland, and indeed some organisations profit by encouraging visitors to spend money with them, to view them…then in other places the ‘pest’ is destroyed. The trouble is many of these that are destroyed are in what was once ‘parkland’ and it it only through neglect and bad woodland management that they have supposedly caused a problem. The other argument is that they poison the ground, and they may well do, but leaving the roots, as they do here, doesn’t solve that problem……
moan over
So on what I hope is a brighter note here are some images from across the weekend. Some from our walkies in the woods and meadows, others from the garden, I hope it gives you a flavour of the sunny weekend….
Even behind the garden shed is worth a second look….
……and here is a first for the summer. It isn’t big, measuring less than 3cm across, but it is our first Rose bud to come into flower. The first of many we hope…..
I hope you had an enjoyable summers weekend too
2nd June
© David Oakes 2013
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 