Photinia Red Robin

 

I had previously posted about this shrub but never before taken a photo from above. Over the last couple of weeks, it has produced a bunches of white flowers that are equal to anything on the internet. The new growth of leaves is that distinctive red that can be seen along the top of the bush. I cannot remember it flowering so well before. 

May and Buttercups

 

The hawthorn trees have all come into flower in the last few days. Everywhere on my walk today there the white blossom (May) had loaded the branches.

And just occasionally they were in pink. There were also fields full of buttercups such as this one near the allotments.

So despite the decidedly chilly, cloudy and breezy weather, the colours were worth seeing. I just felt sorry for the yacht club who were having an open day and the church that was open for teas.  

The bulbs in the bedding border

 

All the daffodils and tulips in the bedding border are over. I have to wait a while before the growth can be cut back in a few weeks. This was how it looked in March and April.

Spring colours in the garden - Yellows and Purples.

The purple alliums are just coming into flower and are contrasting nicely with the yellow poppies. These are either menconopsis cambrica (Welsh poppy) or poppy mongolia. I cannot remember ever buying seeds but they seem to like it at the end of the main border. 

At the back there is also the yellow iris that are also doing well in this container.

At the same time, the weigelia is in it's early stages of flowering.

Pavis Wood Walk

 

It was two years ago that I last posted about one of my favourite walks. But this was the first time I cut out the long haul down and then back up Aston Hill in a six mile circular walk. Just on the level from the car park of Wendover Woods to where I join The Ridgeway. 

Here there is the only place that I needed my walking pole, with a short descent and ascent where there is an intersection of paths.

I leave the woods shortly after to enter a field where, as usual, there are nearly always cows. 

I just took one photo of two calves asleep in the grass.

At the end of the field the Ridgeway enters Pavis Wood where the path is wide and level. The bluebells are on the right.

Not as good as I remember, but the succession of very warm sunny days has had an effect. I do love how there are paths cut this whole area. And there was nobody else around.

We had parked in Wendover Woods car park at 8.20am just as the first parkrun people were arriving. Alison went off for her run and I joined her and three other friends in the cafe after ten o'clock where they were sorting out the tokens after parkrun had finished. A perfect morning.

Venus, The Evening Star

 

The last few nights have been so clear that in the evening one star stood out in the south west, not far from the new moon. (A photo from my old camera). It turns out that I didn't know it was not a star but a planet. Venus.  

Wonderland: Science Fiction in the Atomic Age on Sky Arts - Episode 3 Margaret Atwood to Ted Chiang

 

Professor Dinah Birch starts by talking about the novel The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin. All about swopping genders and a bit too intellectual for me. John Klute tells us about The Dispossessed, "An extraordinary novel" but not for me. I just wish they would give us some context. However, up next we hear about Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale from 1985 that I did like. But The Female Man by Joanna Russ? This is about feminist writers but up next are those who write about race. Such as Kindred by Octavia E Butler and Dhalgren by Samuel R Delaney. I had nver even heard of any of these.

We are told that science fiction has become a melting pot and many African and Ascian writers are mentioned. Ted Chiang is the writer of Arrival (Stories of Your Life etc) that became a hit movie. It was Susan Sontag who wrote The Imagination of Disaster. But suddenly we are pitched into modern sci fi films such as The Matrix and superhero worlds. This is narrated by the producer of the series Adrian Munsey going off into his artful territory which I find tedious. But the last section starts with King Kong before tracking right back to the early black and white horror films such as 1953's War of the Worlds and It Came From Outer Space. This series is actually allover the place. Just one episode to go.