A week is a long time in politics

After my week of protest and political discussion, I felt that I had been away for much longer. This afternoon, I took a short walk around the woods and discovered that a week is a long time in nature, too. A chiffchaff was singing by the Cairn Water and two or three house Martins were winging their way to and fro across the field. Violets and wild strawberries were flowering on the verges, and buds were about to burst open on the trees. This horse chestnut tree was one we grew from a conker and it's now about 10 feet tall.