arch Goes
By the end of March spring had come strongly, but in small ings: many primroses, brilliant sprinklings of white, purple
d sometimes wild pink violets, naked yellow coltsfoot, wild nemones, a few dark buds of bluebells. Scarlet families of dvbirds, looking very like pimpernels, lazed on the earth in the un. Sallow trees were all honey and feathers on every wood- e ; golden saxifrages opened tiny starry flowers, more green d yellow, among the water-cress. Thrushes nested, laid eggs, eserted, began again; the best of the year's miracles, the nest the long-tailed tit, was found where, year after year, it is always found. Bees had long since been out, and with them a ew tortoiseshells. Swans began building their great fawn basket
ong the reeds, and a fish rose on a golden afternoon from among the unfurling water-lily leaves to take a minute cream moth, and missed. Elms blossomed, the woods smouldered n the distances, and the buds of chestnut suddenly broke open, earn and shiny, for all the world as if dipped in caramel.
Previous page
