A New Year awakens the landscape

Notes from my recent countryside walks

Laurie Lee said it best in his poem April Rise - a favourite of mine.

If ever I saw blessing in the air
I see it now this still early day
Where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
Wet sunlight on the powder of my eye.

Blown bubble-film of blue, the sky wraps round
Weeds of warm light whose every root and rod
Splutters with soapy green, and all the world
Sweats with the bead of summer in his its bud.

If ever I heard blessing it is there
Where birds in trees that shoals and shadows are
Splash with their hidden wings and drops of sound
Break on my ears their crests of throbbing air.

Pure in the haze the emerald sun dilates,
The lips of sparrows milk the mossy stones,
While white as water by the lake a girl
Swims her green hand among the gathered swans.

Now, as the almond burns its smoking wick,
Dropping small flames to light the candled grass;
Now, as my low blood scales its second chance,
If ever world was blessed, now it is.

My focus for April was to re-explore some of my favourite countryside walks along the Test Valley and within The New Forest.

Blackthorn may just be my favourite bloom - (though I’m not too much of a fan of sloes or sloe-gin for that matter). White buds engulf the hedgerows, a remarkable contrast to the bright yellow from the rapeseed - fusing together rather spectacular views.

(Below are a selection of images taken on my phone)