BBC filming in Dorking...

Dorking is to be famous! At least on BBC TV. The company is filming a new thriller entitled Mayday and is to be screened later this year. I had come across a large number of trucks idling at the top of Rose Hill and asked one of the crew what was going on.

St Martin’s church at the centre of town will feature, as will I suspect, the pond with its weeping willows.

Tomorrow, Judy and I will visit Lord’s cricket ground. As an honorable member of the Barmy Army, Judy is thrilled to be visiting the mecca of cricket for the second day of the test match between Middlesex and Warwickshire. For an American who knew nothing about the game ten years ago, she has come a long way!

Nicholas

And here are our willows...

I love the singular shade of yellowy-green that belongs to a willow's newly sprouting leaves. 

In Houghton, growing up, I used to lie beneath the canopy of willow branches and it felt like I was in some sort of pale emerald cathedral. I had a similar experience lying on the bed of hemlock needles that had been shed from the stand of evergreens up the hill behind our house, only that was all about the spicy smell and the quiet hush of the forest...

Funny how colours and smells, especially smells, bring me right back to moments from long ago.  At times of great transition my mind journeys into all those memories with frequency. I think, or at least I hope, this happens in order to give me encouragement, to allow me to rest in the process of all the changes. I mean, memories are only memories when seasons have passed, allowing things once familiar and everyday, maybe even taken for granted, to grow sweeter with the passage of time.

Thank you Dorking. I will miss your unique beauty...

Judy