Evening Hedge

Tuesday, 17th June 2003, West Yorkshire

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candle This type of citronella candle in a jar seems to be the most reliable for not getting blown out by a breeze and not, like some large, thick candles, burning the wick into a deep hole which extinguishes the flame.

Does it keep the midges and mosquitoes away? - I'm not sure but we don't seem to get bitten. There's something relaxing about having candlelight, along with a glass of wine of course, with an evening meal on the patio. Even if it isn't dark yet. This evening the wine comes from Malbec grapes grown in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina.

A female blackbird continually searches for worms and other food for her young on the lawn, amongst the herbs and by the hedge.

cumulus A cumulus clouds catches the evening light, floating sedately over the wood, heading north east, building and dispersing in a gentle cycle as it goes.

We gave the beech hedge in the front garden a major cutting back in February, leaving a series of bare stems, like a row of miniature trees visible. I'm pleased that it has greened up again so well this spring after such drastic action.

bramble leaf There's always some bramble growing in the bottom of the hedge and pushing it's way up above it in odd places faster than even the hawthorn can grow. Perhaps it gets there as a result of blackberry seeds that have passed through birds. Long stems spring out from the bottom of the hedge to push, climb and scramble through the plants in the border, using their back-curving spines as grappling hooks.

richard@willowisland.co.uk