72 micro-seasons 28...

Janey...

Midsummer dusk is lit by a strawberry moon,  purple foxgloves crowd the cliffs

Beverley...

The campion fades as the vetch flourishes. A single white butterfly.

Kit...

Early Eden solstice - down through the sweet woods, young fir trees draped in honeysuckle, the air bursting with blackbird song.

Helen...

Sky is a hot blue. I clear a weedy ground elder patch and suddenly the house is full of flowers.

Jane...

Green boughs bob and sway ceaselessly in solstice celebration.

72 micro-seasons 27

Janey...

'Peace', in a sheltered spot, is in fully-blown sweetness. Older roses are venturing into bud again after the winds.

Beverley...

Blackberry in blossom. New stems reaching fast for the fence. Small apples taking shape on the tree.

Helen...

Star of Persia purple alliums - their enormous starry heads sheened and preened in morning sun.

Jane...

Everything stretching up to the light, opening out to the warmth.

Kit...

The fell that last held blue has turned hot pink. Farewell bluebells - behold the crowds of foxgloves!

72 micro-seasons 26

Janey...

Heading home

Stopping off for a walk - dog-roses and elderflower in full heady scent

Beverley...

Nettles now in long tight ranks, and common mallow upstarts. Red clover underfoot.

Kit...

An outrage. 

Ants in the house.

Moths too.

First time for both.

Helen...

Bees bore deep into impossibly blue geraniums. An indignant toad is evicted as we level bare earth for a shed.

Jane...

Sweet afterscent of honeysuckle - what might have been

72 micro-seasons 25...

Janey...

The stately oak avenue, two centuries after planting - high above, the patter of rain on the canopy

Helen...

A disruption of malevolent hail, but in between, a shock of pink in the woods as sunlight catches the underside of maple leaves.

Kit...

Driving home westwards in squally rain to a welcome party of flag irises along the shore, a riot of damp yellow hankies

Beverley...

The dog rose is flourishing and grasses in seed are no longer green rather a haze of grey and mauve.

Jane...

Comfrey and green alkanet push the edges of the garden in.

72 micro-seasons 24

Janey

Buttercups flow across the grasses - a river of gold and green

Kit...

These are the last days I can pull - clean from its sheath - a stem of blue-grass, suck on the end like Huckleberry Finn.

Already, in most, sap's risen, stem's become strong.

Helen...

Iris and Herb Bennet’s vivid yellows- peach and scarlet poppies nodding behind.

Beverley...

Field poppies are rampant now caught in rolling waves of tall grasses. From among the tangle of nettles and seed-heads, the hogweed has made its way clear.

Jane...

I pulled the sky-blue linen jacket out of the wardrobe.