Nature Notes
Nature Notes 2: Spring 2011
Spring 2011! Summer smog in London, days of continuous sunshine.
Bluebells in smokey haze fully out before the nightingales arrive.
Hawthorn, the May blossom, is just showing, and will give hedgerows yet
more glory after the snows of cherry plum and blackthorn of recent
weeks. The fields are lemon yellow with peppery oil seed rape; wheat a
foot high already. The oaks are in olive green leaf, cow parsley lining
the roadsides. Yet the daffodils are still out, as are buttery
celandines. In the garden, the delphiniums are 3 feet high, and
remarkably untouched by slugs.
Yet I saw the first signs of drought by the slumped free-range pigs of
Suffolk's heathlands - lords and ladies (Arum maculatum) crisp
and wrinkled in the dry grass. This day last year - low grey clouds,
northerly wind, and a wall of rain. This time of year, it is cold enough
at night for heavy dew, which saves many plants. At the back door two
nights ago, a tawny owl hooting. Up on the hill in the timber yard,
guinea fowl creaking at their roost, wary of foxes.
