To some, this is a magical time of year, to me it's the second prettiest season, but magical - definitely! One day we walk along a certain path and the beech buds are brown and drab; the next day the lush green leaves have crowded out the bud cases which litter the floor, a precursor to the footfall softening piles of beech mast to come later in the year.
The hawthorn, well behind the blackthorn blossom, is suddenly set to flower any day and the bluebells, green for so long, now carpet the glades and clearings with a purple carpet of hazy hue. It truly is a magical time of year.
We've seen deer through the woods and the first Canada Goose waddled across in front of us as we walked past the castle yesterday evening, waiting for his flock to turn up and fill the estate with their raucous hooping calls. He looked magnificent, his black head so glossy as to catch the last rays of the evening sun.
There's a lot of blossom around and it will be interesting to see what fruit grows from the myriad flowers that surround our cottage. Some of them are known, some can be guessed at, but some are going to be a surprise. We think damson, maybe plum and wild cherry, but as this is a very old estate we could be in for a missed guess or two. There is a wonderfully old walnut tree and the horse chestnut not 100 yards from the cottage is already weighed down with the spikes of hundreds of thousands of flowers.
We know there is also hazel, elderflower and elderberry, the ubiquitous bramble, and sweet chestnut, but we've also discovered a bed of wild currants down by the stream and a possible crab apple or two. It's too early for 'shrooms to show themselves, but we remain very hopeful of a bumper crop this year.
