Meadow alive with colour and the sound of birdsong - country diary archive, 15 June 1918

15 June 1918: Colour shimmered in the sun and seemed to pervade everythingSurreyThe morning air was so light that it hardly touched the tops of the tall poplars, yet it was strong enough to sway poppies in the wheat and make yellow charlock tremble slightly in a farther outfield. Colour shimmered in the sun and seemed to pervade everything; a sense of it came with the rich scent of hay, raked, cocked, waggoned, and pronged by young women, who did everything but shape the stack which now stands on a log foundation near the wood. There timber, mostly ash, was cleared early in the year; birds who had used it as a great grove flew aimlessly across; it then lay bare, a place of the dead, and itself a dead place. Now it is a green copse alive with song; finches twitter, a yellow-hammer perches on the five-barred gate which spans the cart road, foxgloves line the ditch bank. The young sprouted ash with hazel hushes make an underwood through which you must push your way, the open spaces are green with ferns, and in the evening, from birches which were left standing, a blackcap whistles a short but strong tune. Related: Fields of gold: the best of Britain's wild meadows Continue reading...