The best time of day

Taking the chance to do some work up here I was delighted to be woken up at 5:30 a.m. by the dog. My mood improved when I looked out of the window and saw a cloudless sky. I decided on a pre-breakfast walk and went up past Dubbs for a couple of hours.

It was amazingly quiet. you have to remember to stop so you can hear the silence - the trudging noise of your own boots is the noisiest thing around! The meadowsweet along the hedgerows have a really heady scent and were attracting clouds of bees. They reminded me that it's time to revisit Holehird gardens to see the astilbe (the cultivated versions of these) in full bloom.


It's always rewarding to keep your eyes open down the sides of the path. Today I had an extra early breakfast of wild raspberries!


I'm not sure if the raspberries are native plants, but in any event the walk was a feast for the senses and set me up for a day loosely connected to the world of work.