Poppies and daisies

This was a beautiful summer day, less oppressively hot than Monday and Tuesday, with sunshine and a light breeze. After some cat cuddles with J on the patio, I walked down Vicarage Lane around seven o'clock. The meadow beside the Nailbourne was dry and cracked, the yellowed grasses dotted with vivid scarlet poppies backlit by the evening sun and dazzling white ox-eye daisies, framed by the hedgerow tangle of nettles and brambles and the low branches of a large field maple. The field path up the hill threaded between what appears to be poorly grown wheat, already dry and browning, which has been cut early after the long, dry spring. It was a lovely walk, but the fields, gardens and trees desperately need some rain.