Thursday 17 June 2010

Spring Walk

After having that explosion of creativity and activity I took the day off today, simply because the sun was shining. Those kind of days are rare in Scotland and I like to make the most of them. So my studio door was opened wide and I sat on the terras reading. Granted the books were sort of job related about mixed media, and quilting but nevertheless it felt very much like a holiday!

Of course the dogs still needed to be walked even though Troi, the greyhound, was far from keen to venture far in the heat (well relatively speaking, it was warm for Scotland, about 21 degrees Celsius).
The first thing we noticed was the Laburnum tree before we even went out of the gate. Due to the severe winter and the late frosts the show was not half as spectacular as last year but still the golden rain (this is what the tree is called in Dutch i.e. gouden regen) gladdened my heart.

The next treat was the hawthorn blossom of the tree by the old railway bridge. This tree really was decimated during the winter snows and most of the branches are barely attached to the old trunk. I stopped John from clearing them up as I was afraid the birds had already begun nesting and to my amazement the branches actually produced blossom. And in abundance. The smell is glorious and can be smelled even at our gate.

The white looks spendid both on its own and against the bridge. What texture.

The old railway line makes for a very peaceful path and so does the forest. It's extremely rare to meet anyone else and I can enjoy the beautiful scenery including the horses in the field.

On the way home I came across this large clump of lovely little blue flowers and on coming home and consulting The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady concluded they must be Germander Speedwell or Veronica Chamaedris to give them their Latin name. So pretty!

3 comments:

creativelenna said...

how lovely to see a photo of you basking in the sun! I don't know if I should tell you that I did a conversion and at 10pm at night it is still 28 degrees Celsius here in Florida! yikes! of course it's hotter during the day but we are getting used to it. : ) your surroundings are so beautiful. Love the hawthorne, what a nice walk! xo lenna

Shane Pollard said...

And so you should make the most of the beautiful warm sunny days.
We are freezing in the southern hemisphere with the shortest day happening on Monday - 21st June.

I LOVE your laburnum, I've only ever seen them in my garden books, and hope to see one sometime if I'm ever in the UK at the right time.

Georgina said...

It must be good conditions for Germander Speedwell - we have carpets of it for the first time ever. Almost makes the snow worth it!

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