Fields of gold...

Dear souls, it has to be said that the peak of the summer months are not perhaps my personal favourite time of year due to an aversion to heat, however, I hold a strong aesthetic appreciation of the changing landscape around our little country home and beyond. The fields abutting the estate have turned from the acid green of spring to the darker green of early summer and now, with glorious sunshine abound, to the rich, ripe colour of gold preparing to be harvested. It is such a beautiful spectacle with the crops creating waves in the breeze like a golden sea before me, such a joyous sight. The smell of ripened crops is really quite a delicious fragrance unless of course one is afflicted with hay fever, when one is not quite so enraptured, me thinks. Once deemed ready, the harvesting tractor will cut swathes through the crops as a ship on the sea, with cut crops spewing behind as if a golden wake. Crop dust billows and all around us will be engulfed in the rich aroma and birds will follow in its swathed path in hope of any easy meal. I do so love the sights and sounds of this annual event.

The male guardian is once again in professional toil and I am most fortunate to have returned for the evening from my own toil. I am truly grateful for it has been another very hot day and we are most fortunate to have a gloriously cooling breeze to cool us in the sanctuary garden and surrounding countryside. Such a joy to return to on such hot days, with deep dark shade under the apple trees where cooling refreshments can be partaken. I find the orchard such a joyous place to be on hot days for it affords coolness at the same time as the ability to sit and enjoy the sounds of the birds and the lazy drone of the bees. What is there not to like about an English country garden, my dears?