First Shoots After Rain

"The force that through the green fuse drives the flower............."
Dylan Thomas



There have been days of spring warmth, damp and intermittent rain. Walking around the garden this morning, and up on the wooded hill, there were signs everywhere of growth and new life. Nettle and Cleaver squeeze fragile stems and young leaf between the wooden slats of a compost bin. A self-sown Teazel with shining, prickled dark leaves, grows out of mossy soil amongst Ground Ivy and Wood Avens.

Hairy Bitter Cress, which will seed and multiply across the garden all through summer.

Waiting to be weeded away, Red Dead Nettle has early flowers on the soil of a raised garden bed.

This young Dock will not be staying here for long.

Primroses bloom amidst the ivy clad banks around a pond.

Frog spawn and Water Forget-Me-Not. Two days ago, in this small wildlife pond, I saw two beautiful, orange bellied common newts swimming and diving among the weeds. After such a harsh winter, it was good to see that they had survived to breed another year.

Young Foxgloves emerge from leaf-littered earth.

Up on the hill, New Forest ponies and a brown cow had found new foliage to feed on under the trees.

A Silver Birch sapling springs up through the leaf mould beneath its parent tree.


More foxgloves in the hedge bottom.

A mass of bluebell spears in the sheltered ground at the edge of a field.