I toad you so!

Weather: after a foggy start the sun came out and the temperature reached 16C.

Having spent too many hours at the computer I decided to go for a walk in the Oxfordshire countryside. The toads definitely think it's spring! I found this pair on a bridleway. They were lucky I was a walker with my eyes open and not a horse who could have wiped them out with one hoof.

There were lots of butterflies around too. I saw several Peacocks including the one below who kindly stayed still long enough for me to photograph him. But I also saw an Orange Tip and a Brimstone.



There's a clump of wild garlic on this walk, which I do regularly despite not having a dog! I've picked a few leaves from this each year for several years - I chose a dozen or so. I was taught to pick wild flowers by a lovely country woman who used to babysit for me when I was tiny. I always knew her as Mrs Dabinett - which seems very formal nowadays but back then a child would never call an adult by her first name. She taught me many of the west country names for flora and fauna which I still use today! She told me that if I picked from the wild I should leave any clump or group of plants looking as if I hadn't taken any and if there aren't many there then don't pick at all. It's good advice and even though we aren't supposed to pick most wild flowers at all nowadays I always follow her advice when I do.

A little later on the walk I came across another old favourite - a plant I always called an Oxslip - but having got home and done a bit of research I suspect it to be what is known as a False Oxslip. True Oxslips seem only to be found in the East of England and we are pretty central here - and the flowers on the true Oxslip hang on one side of the stem wheras you can see from my picture that the flowers are pretty evenly distributed around the stem and the leaves look more like a primose leaf than the more knarled leaf you'd find on a cowslip. A lovely plant however and I enjoy seeing it at this spot each year.
When I first came to Oxfordshire my job was 24/7 ( 25/7 actually radio stations are demanding beasts!) and I hardly had time to step outside my front door. I can't believe how lucky I am nowadays to be freelance and have the time to get outside mid week.

Enough of this 'walking' stuff - I must get back out into the garden. The third of the trees I got permission to work on is being cut back today. A vast old hawthorn (30ft or so) is being reduced to 2 metres.

It's due to get cold and miserable tomorrow and that's when I'll come inside and get back to my day job!