Miniature Gardens

The big picture of extensive views with tree-covered hills takes some beating, especially in May. To my taste the best views are where trees are covering most of the landscape. Some individually shaped farm fields can help to complement the woodland lower down but I still find yellow flowered rape crops very hard to take.

Near perfection can sometimes be found by looking down at random miniature gardens, where newly emerging plants push through leaf litter and moss before the more pushy species dominate later in the summer.

This is the special role of spring flowers such as wood sorrel and violet.

Common or not these flowers are always welcome but even the leaves alone can create attractive mini-scenes in fairly unlikely places such as the dry ground under a large beech or the thick accumulations of moss on the side of a tree.