The natural world is the most recurrent theme in my poetry, I am still grieving from the sight yesterday afternoon of a man with a power pack on his back spraying the verges of our little lane with weedkiller. He clambered up the bank below our fence to make sure he covered every daisy, dandelion and celandine in flower, plus the emerging mallow and cow parsley that give us and the bees and butterflies such joy and sustenance.
Only yesterday morning on my sunshiny walk around the village. I took snaps of the progress of Spring – fortunately, because the flowers may not be there next time I look.
Mallow 2014 (Lavatera)
The ubiquitous primrose and celandine star every roadside bank and field boundary.
We are approaching Earth Day, when attention will be focused everywhere on how we can care for our planet. Poet friend Elizabeth Crawford issued a challenge, and I hope you will all respond to it.
Vivinfrance's Blog 
No…. I am very sad to hear of the guy spraying weedkiller! Why?? (And is that a magnolia – how beautiful!)
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So am I. Yes, I’ve posted pictures of that magnolia in various stages of flowering, but the fallen petals do add a certain je ne sais quoi. Magnolias do very well round here, there are lots of magnificent specimens.
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As you know, I don’t have my computer, at the moment. Thanks for spreading the word. I’ve been going through the photos and images on all of my blog sites and I have plenty of Earth’s Beauty to post for the challenge, as well as poetry and short essays. I can only hope that others will do the same.
Elizabeth
http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/
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Bah-humbug on those weed-killing ninnies. Thank you for the taste of spring where you are, Viv. I’ll go see what the challenge is…thank you for sharing. 🙂
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Beautiful pics, Viv. I despise weed killers, as well.
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I picked my first nettles from our back lane yesterday for soup – have to me careful of those who like to use weedkiller but seem OK at the moment. Looking forward to nettles in greater abundance for nettle pesto which I made for the first time last year. Our dandelions are guinea pig food and they love this time of year with the fresh grass coming through as well. I have used dandelion leaves in moderation as well. Sally
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What a splendid magnolia, and I’m so sorry about all of your wildflowers. How very sad that they don’t understand about the balance of things. >
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That is disgusting! What is the matter with these people. Is that the council, or whatever the equivalent is in France? The poor bees trying to find early nectar.
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Yes, Jock doesn’t want me to have a go at the Maire, but I may not be able to resist it.
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