The late freeze

The minus 4temps have done a lot of damage to trees in first leaf and blossom. These are blackened walnut catkins and the newly emerged leaves. This was not a elevation-based frost but was caused by a pretty uniform mass of cold, ultimately Polar, air. So both lowland, hillside and highland areas in Tuscany have suffered, apricot growers in particular.

We’ll just have to cross our fingers for the cherries, plum and pear that were in blossom.

Prince Philip’s death had us returning to The Crown this evening - a strange but poignant intersection between fact and faction