Under an old plum tree

The largest plum it has ever produced in the time we've known it, an inch long!

I say plum but its fruits are so small I have wondered at times whether it's really a damson. I know the tree is old because someone who grew up here and who is now in her sixties said it was there when she was a child and used to eat too many at once! One easy lesson in how to get a belly-ache. Funny how kids just have to learn the hard way sometimes. Here is a picture, taken in April, of its blossom – what the bullfinches didn't scoff while still in bud.

I was under the plum tree a good deal this morning, scything the top part of the bank. During breathers I had time to look about me and appreciate, yet again, the beauty of my surroundings and how lucky I am to be in a place I love. It was a blue sky, sparkly loch summer day with a good, cooling breeze blowing from the south-east.