More mobile fun.

In a cold and soggy Spring, a sunny day came as more than welcome and once again we extended our walk into Kings Wood.

This was a good location to test the new phone's 3-shot panorama option, the stitches aren't perfect but the resulting images are quite pleasing.

Further along the path we were quite delighted by this scene of early Ramson flowers blossoming behind a stand of bluebells fronted by some late flowering celandines. On setting out to photograph the scene we found, most annoyingly, that the re-chargable batteries of the "real" camera had just given up the ghost and we had'nt brought spares. But the mobile did a good job as backup camera in capturing a scene that we would have otherwise had to wait another year to record. The next twelve days were rain, work, rain and by the time we got back to the woods the bluebells and celandines had gone over.

After a couple of weeks of dull weather and a fairly busy work schedule we managed to take advantage of a spell of fine weather and head back to the woods.

Things have certainly moved on somewhat since we were last here. The trees are coming into leaf at an astonishing rate and the contrast of the fresh spring-green leaves of an ash tree against the vibrant blue sky is a joyful and enlivening sight.

Ramson flowers dominate the woodland floor and their scent fills the air. If you're of a garlic persuasion it makes your mouth water.

We were hoping for some better light. Although it isn't actually raining, the sky is overcast and the light has a blue cast which makes everything look a little cold. Still, the drifts of wild garlic in King Johns Wood don't seem to mind and the woodpeckers are easily visible high up in the trees, drumming away, looking for grubs.

This the "big field", as we call it. This is the "leaved" version, here it is a month earlier, quite a difference.

We like the grand sweep of the field and on the embankment we are far enough removed for the occasional wildlife visitor to be unconcerned by our presence. We have seen a fox making its way across the contour of the field and, on another occasion, a delicate little Muntjac deer grazing.

This time of year, the field is awash with buttercups.

Late May is the main time for meadow buttercups. At the edge of town, the "kissing gate" leads on to this fine hay meadow. In the lee of the hedge, Alexanders are blooming (white umbellifers) and the grass is beginning to grow tall.

On the old railway track we spot a weasel, bounding leisurely along the pathway towards us. We stop and wait but his destination is somewhere down the embankment and he disappears into cover.

Up at our turnaround point (1m from the house) is Winscombe Tunnel Cutting, a damp, shady and fern-lined place with a slippery earth bank, steepening into limestone rock walls as it nears the tunnel entrance. The dappled sunlight brings out the stunningly rich greens of the ferns and ivy.

Steve joins us for a Sunday stroll to Cross Plain, we take a different route from our usual along the lower path in Kings Wood. This path skirts the top of the "big field" which affords us with a fine view of the grazing White Park Cattle and beyond them the pond and then the railway walk.

These spectacular, very laid-back cattle are a fairly recent introduction to the area and during the summer are set to roam free on the top of Cross Plain and Wavering Down, performing landscape maintenance on behalf of the National Trust. White Park Cattle are an ancient breed and have always been popular in art and literature. They are probably the oldest breed of cattle found in the British Isles.

Interesting ash tree bark texture.

Recently, the garden has become a "day centre" for several sparrow families with fledglings. From the kitchen window we see them all around the garden. The fledglings are still quite fluffy, very cute and flutter their wings at their diligently attentive parents. They have joined the other "regulars" at our bird table: greenfinches, bluetits, great tits, a dunnock, Colin the coaltit, Uriah the blackbird and his missus; the garden, as usual, was positively jumping. Such was the scene first thing this morning when I made my coffee.

Some urgent work detained me at the keyboard for the next hour or so and when I returned to the kettle for another cuppa I glanced out of the window to see that the garden now contained one and only one undeniably beautiful bird.