The weekend started with a rainbow over the marsh. It was one of the highlights of a quiet ramble.

The wind had blown the leaves off the Ash, and the sun could now reach the floor where they lay.

The rain had filled the marsh, the water was clear and Poplar leaves lay like gold coins.

In the evening we had a party, we sang and danced and ate and talked into the night. We didn’t know one another this time last year. Now we’re a bunch of friends, Marshians!

Not even slightly bleary eyed quite a few of us met on the marsh. We even had Earthlings to convert.

It didn’t take long

The old experienced folks headed one way and the young and eager went the other.

We had to learn scything from scratch.

Meanwhile across the marsh the haystacks were growing

With some more experienced folks we learnt how to drag the reeds across the marsh on a tarpaulin.

We also found a harvest mouse nest in the sedges we cut in January. So they don’t take long to take advantage of the new grown areas.

which also happen to be full of wildflowers

A year ago we took our first tentative steps onto the marsh

To be visited by not one but two Avocets

To be followed by over a hundred Marshians.

I’m sure I’m in the middle of some dream