Lost Lanes of Queen Anne's Lace

Umbillifer at Lobbs Wood

I drove Bea to Rustington on Tuesday morning.  We shopped and coffee'd and did OK.  And Bea kindly bought us a lasagne from Cooks which we had for supper.   David and Shirley came over on Wednesday and joined us for coffee and cakes in the afternoon.

The new lifeboat was launched in the evening, with BBC South Today in attendance.  Captain B made a brief appearance in the crowd as the boat was launched.

Aunt Jo rang, as did Christine, who has offered me a lift with her and David to the Assembly on Saturday.

Today was sunny and we went to Kithurst Meadow to see what we could see. Butterfly Mark and Butterfly Nigel were there - Nigel with some kind words about my Membership Secretaryship.

How Spring has moved on. We drove under green arcs of trees, there were Chestnut candles, and Queen Anne's lace along the roadsides.  We used to call it Cow Parsley in my youth - which is not quite such a glamorous name.

It reminded me of the beautiful poem Cut Grass by Philip Larkin.

Cut grass lies frail:
Brief is the breath
Mown stalks exhale.
Long, long the death

It dies in the white hours
Of young-leafed June
With chestnut flowers,
With hedges snowlike strewn,

White lilac bowed,
Lost lanes of Queen Anne's lace,
And that high-builded cloud
Moving at summer's pace.

https://allpoetry.com/Cut-Grass