Berkshire Poppies

In addition to being the name of a great track by Traffic, Berkshire Poppies seemed to fit the title of today's post quite well, as the photos below will show. As I hadn't managed to get out at all during the week, I forced myself to do two mountain bike rides this weekend. Yesterday's took me up to Ashmansworth, down then up again into Faccombe, and looping back home via West Woodhay. A pleasant 17 miles despite the greyness and slight rain, and the bonus was coming across this beautiful roadside scene.

Berkshire Poppies

The weather for today's ride however was much better. After having watched The Truth About Widlife last week, it was pleasing to come across a farm which was making use of the financial incentives to devote parts of its farmland to wildlife. The photo below was taken near Hoe Benham and shows the scale of this farm's efforts, but what it doesn't show is the actual wildlife - it was however teeming with butterflies, bees and birds, so seems like the scheme is working.

    

Tumbling roses

The very dry spell we had in April meant that the flowering of some of my roses this year was a bit delayed. However the downpours of the past few weeks have now re-addressed the balance, and if anything, the tumbling border roses are even more impressive than in previous years ... so much so that I think perhaps they may be tumbling a bit too much.

The vegetable patch is coming along nicely, but as usual everything seems to be ready at the same time.

Apart from gardening, other recent activities have been focused on regaining my cycling fitness after a back problem earlier in the year, and optimising my others blogs and web pages.