Hills and Fields

To Titley and Kington this morning, ways over the hill not used for some time and the ditches and hedges are much thicker than they were with cow parsley and wild flowers. The hedges too are thickening up, the views through them lost until October. Warm, slightly stuffy weather, threatening rain, promising sunshine, and neither appears. We found a new walk at Kington, along a short stretch of the Offa's Dyke path, a narrow river track still a little muddy from the rain a few days ago. The river full from rain in the hills, noisy and strong. The path went round a large field of buttercups, quiet, perhaps an unused paddock, thick and seemingly flooded with gold, surrounded by trees heavily leaved. It no longer feels like spring.

Home over the hills for the change, and we stopped up on the tops near the Observatory. A clear afternoon with a suggestion of haze, the hilltop silent apart from a skylark, the sheep and a warm breeze. We stood on the roadside and had a 360 degree view of hills, woods, fields of sheep, distant hills fading to silhouettes, empty of people and almost no houses in sight. And no traffic, so a peaceful and quiet five minutes away from the world.

And tomorrow it is June, the start of summer. Presteigne is becoming a summer town, garden events and outdoor parties starting to be advertised, the occasional groups of walkers or cyclists, holidaymakers. The ditch spring flowers have faded and only in the deep woods are there still any bluebells. The trees are fully leaved and the hedges are thick. It may be occasionally cold, but spring is over here.