The Nature Table: July

This month’s nature table smells divine.

For weeks now, I’ve walked up the lane to the house in a cloud of honeysuckle and mock orange perfume.  Sublime.  The moors have been softly scented by clover blossoms which carpet the ground where the buttercups dance.

All this scent goes a little way towards making up for the lack of berries.  July should be bilberry month.  My fingers are usually stained purple around now; and the moor edges populated by small groups of people bent double over plastic tubs….painstakingly picking the tiny fruits one by one.  But not this year.  Must be down to the long dry spring we had (there’s a downside to everything).

Instead, the apple harvest has come several weeks early.  The trees in the neighbouring field are laden with ripe fruit.  I heard on the radio it’s the earliest season on record.  Must be down to the long dry spring we had (there’s an upside to everything).

The grasses have caught my attention as much as the flowers this month….waving with the breeze and catching the light.  They reach to my waist; the thistles are even higher.  And now the tall purple foxgloves have given way to the tall purple rosebay willowherb.

There’s a satisfied kind of ampleness to July.  Even without the bilberries.

Comments

[jeandly]

I love these collages you put together. This one is so lovely, colourful, lush and a host of other adjectives. Your photography skills in putting these together are really developing (pardon the pun!)

[Angela Vular]

Love your collage....gorgeous colors! I've just got to get outside with a camera. It has been sooo hot and humid here. The weather just absolutley drains the energy out of you.

[Life Images by Jill]

I haven't visited for a while - so I am delighted to view your beautiful images of summer. Thanks for sharing them with me while I winter here in Australia.