a sad day

on a black day
I am Spot no more
but Spo, bright and gay;
and sore.

but there are too many unwanted pups in the world, so the T's had to go.

and Tomorrow is my birthday, and I am expecting lots of friends and presents and a party, at HOME.

and one of me, soon to be spo

Yes, I will have that pheasant. In the background you can see Aunty Sally thinking about taking the O's out of Frodo. Me it's just joie de courir.

pheasant's eye

not the red corn weed, but the beautiful narcissi poeticus, a type of daffodil; it was probably grown in these meadows commercially once upon a time. I don't know why it should be poeticus, certainly not for Wordsworth.

grasses

even grass can look quite interesting at this time of year. Unfortunately there are zillions of different types of grass, and only experts who eat sleep and drink them (eg horses, cows) know them all. This is some sort of sedge (probably, dope)

blueberry

this strangely luminous little red flower is the flower of the wortleberry or blueberry which is quite common around here and on Kit Hill They look like little chinese lanterns when they catch the light.

walks

today's hike was up in the meadows where the orchids grow. There has been a lot of thinning out of the woods to let in some air, and with any luck to help the rare heath fritillary butterfly to prosper on cowwheat and ribwort plantain, both of which are abundant. We plan to camp out all of one day in June to see if we can capture a good photo of it for my blog