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Today our April showers began. This morning Jackie continued her planting, weeding, and tidying; while I dug out a bank of sycamore seedlings dropped onto the Back Drive borders by a tree in the garden of the vacant North Breeze next door, and a large bramble from the Rose Garden.
In the variable light numerous plants like
tiny saxifrages,
various tulips,
honesty petals and seed cases,
rhododendrons,
lilies,
and little lamiums sparkled with raindrops.
Others, including libertias,
geranium Phaeums,
clematis Montanas,
another rhododendron,
and the wisteria, were too sheltered to catch the rain.
The wisteria brightens Jackie’s view from the kitchen window,
in front of which hangs Pauline’s beautifully faceted light catcher.
The sun came and went above the garden paths, three views of which include the Florence sculpture;
and a fourth, the Brick Path.
This afternoon we drove around the forest.
Up on the moors we could watch the rainclouds sending down shafts of their precipitation, in darker indigo slashes, whilst the sun picked out the glowing gorse.
I waited a while for the sun to pierce the cloud cover and play with this scene of stepped tree roots ascending a gravelly slope.
Brooding clouds, sunlight, gorse, and thatched roofs provided a dramatic entrance to Frogham,
beyond which we spotted our first pony foal of the season, its mother providing instruction in planting yourself firmly on the road. Notice its nice new shoes.
Between Godshill and Cadnam, alongside Roger Penny Way, another, adventurous, new baby kicked up its heels and rushed back to its mother on my approach, then continued to explore the terrain at a safe distance.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious liver, bacon, and sausage casserole, new potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower, followed by custard tart. She drank Peroni and I drank more of the Madiran.