The pace of events is quickening now and the last two days have been very warm. However, it seems to me there are nowhere near as many flying insects about as in previous years.
Not long ago I moved the bench I sit on from time to time from the east of the Square Matre to the south, but something did not like it as two nights running I found it tipped over - deer, badgers, cats: a mystery. Anyway, I gave up putting it back in place and now sit on a rather plasticky kneeler which is actually more comfortable and allows me to haul my old bones up and down more easily.
The birch tree is performing well this year and has many male catkins that fall and drape themselves over Emthree plants. The female catkins are shorter and more stubby and do not fall from the higher branches like the males.
The hornbeam, kept to 1 metre tall, is now well into leaf and I notice that the buds at the top of the plant open two or three weeks later than those lower down. This must be because the lower buds formed in the autumn, but the upper, adventitious buds have had to wait for in the spring.
