THE wheat and the barley are growing tall. Swallows skim just above the top of the fattening ears, picking up flying insects. Skylarks sing high above the fields, provided there are patches where the crops are thin enough on the ground for them to nest and find insects for their young. The skylarks also skirmish just above the corn, for though they proclaim their possession with their songs up in the sky, their territories are on the ground below.
Bramble flowers are opening by woodland edges and along the hedgerows. The flowers are very pale and watery, and the countryside looks as if it is covered by flecks of melting snow. The white rosettes of the dogwood flowers sparkle more brightly in the hedges.
In short grass and in waste, dusty places, the frosty-looking leaves of silverweed lie on the ground, with the yellow flowers just opening. Cinquefoil, which is a close relative of silverweed, creeps along the ground with a display of similar flowers. Another flower of the thin grass is mouse-ear hawkweed. It is like a small, pale yellow dandelion, with a pinkish tinge beneath, and its name comes from the hairy, oval leaves at the base of the stalk.
DJM