Ox-Eye Daisies in old hay meadow
29th May
(Ox-Eye Daisies in old hay meadow, 2006)
A cuckoo quietly very early before dawn, and then he ceased.
A kingfisher sped over the meadow towards the river. So fast and straight and sure.
A bee sleeping under a clover flower, too cold yet to fly and feed.
In the daytime between showers of lashing rain, belting hail, rolling thunderclaps and towering clouds high up into the blue, a common blue at Blatchford Down, and a tired old Painted Lady among the flowers of Holmbury Hill. An orchid, too, at Hackhurst, and still the wild strawberry blossomed.
In the woods after a sky-black downpour, the sun shone strong through the bright fresh beech leaves, and in a glade I saw steam rise thick from leaves like morning mist, with midges like tiny jewels of flitting light against a holly dark beyond.