The Scents and Sounds of Summer
Summer has suddenly arrived
FLORA AND FAUNA AND THE FOREST WORLD
Joan
5/1/20254 min read
Today is the first day of May. This is when traditionally husbands and lovers would give a sprig of muguet (or lily of the valley) to their loved ones. Nowadays it is given to others all over France around this time as a token of friendship . I read that the production of muguet in Western France is big business, and that the flower is carefully cultivated so that its delicate bell shaped flowers open around this time. However, I have discovered a clump of these flowers in a shady corner of our garden. Each year it never ceases to amaze me that the flowers open up fully at exactly the right time, dead on May 1st . If you have never smelled a lily of the valley flower, then you have missed the most delicate and entrancing of perfumes. Forget expensive bottles at the perfumery counter. They can't possibly compare.
Be it in pot, or as a sprig, a gift of lily of the valley is something to treasure.
Way back in January I blogged about the tiny yellow flowers that were beginning to appear on the genista hispanica. This shrub grows wild all over our forest, and brings with it the hope of spring. Now it is in full and magnificent bloom. But as summer arrives it is beginning to fade, and the whole forest is filled with its perfume. Soon it will be over, but the memory of its heady scent will linger all year.
Of course, as I have already blogged, there are flowers to be seen here, whatever the time of year, be it the pale green stinking hellebore of winter time, or the pink cistus or purple globe thistle of summer. As flowers fade, new species grow. However, as we took our walk through the forest today, there seemed to be so many varieties appearing at the same time, that it was hard to take them all in.
May is certainly one of the best months of the year for wild flowers. Before too long the heat will parch the earth, and flowers will fade. It is then that I shall look to my garden flower pots to maintain some colour, as long as they are watered. But meanwhile I shall fully appreciate this wonderful display of summer colours. All of these photographs I took on our walk today.
But the flowers are not alone in declaring the arrival of summer. The birds too seem to have woken up, and the forest is full of their sounds: blackbirds and thrushes with their melodious calls; the green woodpecker who likes to share his laughter; and the large black woodpecker with his two distinctive cries. The snake eagle cries from the sky above us, as it searches for prey, sounding like a mewling gull., while a gentle tap-tap-tap from a nearby tree, indicates the elusive spotted woodpecker is close by. Even at night, tawny owls call from the trees above our house, where we think they might be rearing their young. Finally, to our great excitement, yesterday we heard the nightingale singing from our boundary hedge. It would seem that he has returned to the adjacent patch of land, that he once abandoned when it became cultivated, but which has now returned to scrub. More than anything, the nightingale's return from Africa heralds the arrival of summer. He is a diminutive bird however, and hard to capture on camera, so I am afraid that I can only show you a stock image.
