Roses

These may be the last blooms of the summer, I hope they’ll flower again before Christmas after a prune, the petals on the red rose are really thick and the sun dazzles around them. The grass in the paddocks has turned a bright shade of green since the thunderstorms and is growing well, a sprinkling of donkey and sheep poo must have helped; the rain came too late for the fields opposite, there’s not enough grass for the customary second cut as there are large bare patches, so no more hay this year although there may be a cut for silage in November. A low lying mist started the day which cleared quickly in the morning sun, watered the runner beans and the greenhouse before cycling.

sdr

Roses

Flourishing in the manured rose bed, they get the early morning sun. Drinking from the bird bath early this morning was the Green Woodpecker, flies the same route from the oak tree at the bottom of the paddock up to the row of trees that border the lane, he stops to eat the ants in the nest under the birdbath. The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker also drinks here but doesn’t eat the ants before flying away. The Ash trees growing out of the hedgerow are full of ‘keys’, I hope some saplings will grow and flourish elsewhere.