Project 365 day 146: Cloudscape

A succession of spectacular banks of cloud built up over the downs this afternoon, and although they largely obscured the sun, there were occasional brilliant patches of sunshine. This is the view roughly east from halfway down the orchard, and the yellow meadow on the side of the valley is full of buttercups. It was lovely to walk down there for the first time in a week or so: the grass has grown a lot in all the rain, and it's a real wildflower meadow, with big patches of speedwell, ground ivy and buttercups. It will need mowing soon, before it gets to long for the tractor mower to cope, but the soil has been undisturbed for generations and these low-growing flowers quickly grow back. The apple blossom is gorgeous too, lots of perfect pink and white - I must go back and photograph it in the next couple of days.

I transferred two dozen small tomato plants into intermediate pots today. I sowed these in February and they have been very slow to develop - I'm hoping a few warmer days will provoke a growth spurt. I also separated a tray of densely sown lettuce seedlings into individual modules to grow on a bit more before planting out. It was old seed which I sowed thickly in case the germination rate was poor, so when just about all of it grew, I found I had a small tray of hopelessly cramped and entangled seedlings. Now I hope they will establish good root balls and perk up quite quickly.