Photo Blog One - June 21st - 29th The Walk

Bee on dahlia taken this morning after my wet walk.

 As I'm mega tired tonight  - not sure why....had lovely lunch with dear friend in Totnes...I'm putting up a photo blog tonight that I started earlier today....photos taken in the middle of June.

 Surprised to see the oblong bales all gone and  they have ploughed up the barley field already. Getting ready for the next crop. 

Already I can feel a slight change in the air...a whiff of  end of summer....the blue skies of June seem an age ago now.

This morning - the barley all gone and 

on June 21st still pale gold.

All following photos taken in June...

Back to bee this morning in my garden.

Not a Tawny Owl... Avian Pox ....And A Year Ago Today.

I didn't see a tawny owl yesterday -  my sister tells me it was a buzzard!  Because it flew out of the same tree where I'd seen the owl the day before, and even though I know that owls don't have yellow hooked beaks and the cry was nothing like a twit/twoo and the shape of it in the sky wasn't quite right, I clearly wanted it to be an owl so much that I led myself astray. 

At least I can recognise a buzzard now.

And maybe the little dead bird wasn't a thrush....there are other birds with speckled chests.....

I think the bird silhouette on the right is a robin ...but I could be wrong. The one on the left could be a blue tit.  I do know the tail on the branch above it belongs to a woodpecker.

It has been raining most of the day and the birds 

who come to the feeder - not nearly so many in the last few weeks - 

are all a bit wet and bedraggled.

And this poor little dunnock has something seriously wrong with it. I think it may be Avian pox which is a skin viral infection. I've just been reading about it. I have already removed some of the bird feeders but it looks like I need to disinfect the whole area. Too late for this little one though. 

It was very wet and misty in the fields this morning, my boots were soaked in minutes.

and I do love the rolled up bales - more than the oblong ones...you are right B, they give the landscape a lovely serene quality.

The sheep were very noisy this morning too...

I don't think I was disturbing them although this one did look me in the eye and baa- ed many times over.

It was a year ago today that I left my old home and moved into this house. I can remember all the details of that day so well.

I thought about it a lot this afternoon as I was unpacking some boxes like these in the kitchen. Except they were upstairs in one of the spare bedrooms  -  full of bed sheets and towels, table cloths and old throws. Thirty years of memories in old linen.

I've kept a few items - the  two blue African print table cloths we bought in a street market in Harare, the bed spread that my parents had on their bed when I was a child and some of the newer duvet covers and pillow cases.

It was so good to fill up six black plastic bags to take to the charity shop...so good to let go of the memories woven into the fabric of those days....and I certainly don't need ten old  hand towels that have  seen better days.

A year ago I wasn't ready to make those decisions. Today I was.

Gift of Unexpected Beauty

This morning  I'm surprised by the gift of the open petals of a self seeded poppy. I've watched it getting taller and taller in a pot of agapanthus which haven't grown an inch all summer.Yesterday the bud was totally closed ...I didn't know what colour it would be.... and now, instead of the big heads of  a blue, I have this single, brief beauty guarding the door of the green house. 

Yesterday I had another wonderful surprise on my walk -  I spotted the tawny owl - I followed the flap of wide brown wings into the trees and caught a brief glimpse of curved yellow beak and claw perched on top of a telegraph pole ....I  caught it in my camera lens just as it flew off  - blurred in the distance.  

 It was making a strange" kew kew" call which I heard coming out of  the trees on the other side of  a field. So I climbed the bank, grabbing onto the branches of a young hazel tree and crouched amongst the nettles and brambles waiting for it to fly out. And it did, still calling... too far to really see its glory but thrilling all the same.

And then another surprise - the cut stalks of the barley field have been rolled up...

they must have done it on Saturday when I was up early cooking instead of walking.

I love it that every day I walk the same route and everyday I'm surprised by something different from yesterday ....something under my feet, in the hedgerow...a new sound, a new smell....

something in the sky....

this morning as I opened the gate to the footpath I heard a rush and roar of gas ...

and looked up to see this hot air balloon drifting  above the trees in a marbled sea of clouds. And I remembered the flight that Robin and I took for his 50th birthday ....in another, different life.

And the formation of clouds...

and the light on the rolled up barley ...a different pinky gold from yesterday....

and this poor young thrush, dead on the path in front of me ...its innards spilled behind it. 

Later , sitting under the oak tree I hear a rustling in the stream below me  and wait till this blackbird emerges, rooting about in the mud for grubs.

 Then another scratching  movement  deep in the  hazel hedge behind me...I hope it's the tiny wren which I've only seen once before....and it is. I glimpse it briefly hopping between the branches. 

I feel so blessed by the free gift of this unexpected beauty all around me.

It keeps me going all day as I clean the bathroom, de-clutter bottles of old shampoo and soap dishes, and make phone calls to a builder....to a solar panel company.... write an email to a dear friend, and eat my left -overs- from- the- birthday party- lunch on the bench in my blustery garden...hoping  the poppy petals will survive the rain that I can feel is coming in on the wind.

But glad I won't have to water the garden this evening.

PS for B. Thanks for lovely comments...no progress re why I can't reply....but how wonderful that the little purple flower in the grass is called 'self heal'....I really do feel this place is helping to heal me ...from the outside in.