RAIN SHOWERS AND THE ODD DASH OF HAIL come from the west with a wind that whips the canal into one or two miniature breakers.
I do a double take as I see a patch of ground move. By a stream that runs down through the open fields on the valley side, two small Sallow trees, dotted with furry white buds, are swaying in the wind, lifting a section of the bank the size of a mattress.
A bright Bullfinch is shadowed by the duller female as he dis-buds a thorn tree in the wood.
Throughout the winter there have been a few blooms on one bedraggled plant of Red Campion, on a sheltered, south-facing stretch of the canal bank.Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'
