Tredaniel plan d'eau, morning

The circus is in town, in the car park.  Three colourful performing bantam cockerels, one tethered by his leg with string, have been let out to graze on the grass.

Approach to Bogard, afternoon

I am in a hurry, so we walk just about to the point where an old oak tree has been split and broken down a jagged near-vertical axis, by who-knows what.

Woods outside Henon, lunchtime

I first hear, then catch sight of the woodpecker as it flies across my path; the whir of its wings seem to echo the drumming of its beak on wood.

Down the road, evening

The scent of the berberis hedge and the aromatic balsam of the poplars all down the valley, coming into coppery leaf, with the mounting birdsong thicken the air for spring.

Up the road, afternoon

Though the sun is bright, there are windflowers out, and today I saw the year's first swallow, still I have to pull my fleece sleeves down over my ungloved hands.

Up the road, afternoon

Soundscape: one skylark up from the grass, another further off, blackbirds, a bumblebee passing, distant traffic and a high-flying jet, a dog barking, a donkey's hee-haw near the water tower.

The old railtrack, Gare de Moncontour, afternoon

The day is a homogeneous foggy monochrome, except for the electric green flicker of emerging hawthorn leaves above the path.

Molly comes back to the car smelling of crushed celandines.

Garden, morning

The greater spotted woodpecker comes to the feeder to eat the fat-balls.  It looks enormous so close, and the patterning on its back reminds me of some kind of insect.

Up the road, afternoon

There is the faintest dusting of white on the still leafless mirabelle hedge in the distance.

The skylark Molly started up from the pasture accompanies us, singing, along the road.

Watermill, Guette-es-Lievres, morning

Tight pleated shoots of wood anemone emerge through the leaf litter.  One of last year's beech leaves is pierced and held aloft by the yellow bullet of a daffodil bud.