20.

The hedgerows are blooming, vibrant and bursting with spring greenery. Along the verges pale primroses cluster in ragged rugs and the wood sorrel blinks white flowers from its trails of heart-shaped leaves. Bright anemones scatter the rounded banks, starred with chickweed. Red campion blushes the roadside and violets are strewn in secret gaudiness, hidden among the proliferation of grasses. In the woods, straight Douglas firs shelter tumbling rushes of bluebells, springing from the whispering mulch of the forest floor. Mushrooms grow softly among the roots and scatter, rotting, across the path. The sun cuts through the leaves, turning the dust motes to diamonds and flakes of gold.