Happy days

Two evenings ago, the night before the full moon, I suddenly noticed my wild cherry tree. It was in full bloom and the scent of the flowers was filling the garden.

My wild cherry tree

The nearly full moon, half an hour or so later

I have this theory that every flower has its momentary peak and, if you’re lucky enough to catch it at that peak, the experience is extraordinary. This was one of those moments.
 
But where were the bees? Surely bees need to catch flowers at their peak as this, I presume, is the flowers’ most fertile time. Or, to put it another way, the flowers are doing their utmost to attract the bees when they need them. Perhaps the tree is pollinated by night-flying moths. Who knows?
 
The more I look into nature, the more questions I have, and the more I realise that we don’t know everything about how the natural world works. In fact, we hardly know anything. How exciting that is!
 

I’ve been visiting my secret wood nearly every day, so as to catch the bluebells at their peak, if I can, if I’m lucky enough, if God wills it. You can’t grasp at nature. You have to let it come to you.

My secret wood, in a valley created by two small streams, untouched because too steep to cultivate

The wood's first bluebells in a patch of sunshine

En route I’ve seen many other wildflowers bursting into bloom.

Garlic Mustard, aka Jack-by-the-Hedge,
a favourite food of the caterpillars of the Orange-tip butterfly 

Crosswort, so called because the leaves and the petals come in fours arranged in a cross.
It's related to what most people call Sticky Weed and what we as children called Goosegrass.
(Sorry for the blurred photo. I was in a lane and car came past and I had to grab Ellie.)

Cowslips, which shouldn't grow round here because they like chalky (not sandy) soil. This is a solitary patch which comes up every year and I'm always so pleased to see it.

I’ve noticed fungi as well, another of nature’s mysteries.

White tree fungus, like a clump of foam

Black tree fungus, like lumps of coal

The remains of a puffball, on the ground

Happy days. In nature, I feel closest to Frog. I know now that he’s still around me all the time and that he's guiding me. He told me so on one of my walks.