The Greening of Spring

I walked around the field boundary last week, experimenting with the new-to-me camera that I now seem to be sharing with Mr DW. These are using the ordinary lens and it is early days yet.

It was a bright, sunny morning and the trees, which have grown out of the old hedge boundary, were filling out their new leaves. It was that stage of spring when each tree is a different shade of green from its neighbour. Grasses and wildflowers were growing well in the resting paddock. We are on acid soil and there will always be buttercups, but I am not going to spray them. There are fewer bees, butterflies and other insects around this year, so they need all the help that they can get and they don`t need artificial chemicals to contend with.

Oak and beech together in the boundary hedge. This oak produced an unusual number of pollen flowers this spring. From a distance, their pale, yellowy haze stood out against hedgerow shadows.

The vibrant beauty of new beech leaves...............

......and young oak leaves against blue sky.

A mix of old holly trees, beech, oak and hawthorn in a dense area of the hedge boundary. On the other side of the hedge is a drainage ditch, dug long ago, that still collects run-off water from the heath and brings a good supply to the roots of these hedgerow trees.

Bluebells in the hedge bottom.

This week we have had alternating sunshine and soft rain showers, so leaves are darkening and the trees are in a period of strong growth. Last week, when these photographs were taken, we had a few precious days to enjoy the freshness of new greens and the softness of fragile young leaves.