Coronaviris lockdown: more pictures from my home patch

Well into week five now of the coronavirus lockdown, and still walking the same early morning, three and a half mile, local exercise walk. The weather has been exceptionally dry lately, and warm later in the day, though it's often misty in the early morning when we leave home. Spring up here in Durham is still some way behind counties further south; Ash trees flowered  in the second week of April but won't produce leaves until mid-May, whereas oak is just coming into leaf in late April.

One of the local farmers has a small herd of belted Galloway cattle, which are becoming an increasingly popular breed. There is one rather charming calf with a red-brown and white coat.

Fields of oilseed rape, with the village of Billy Row on the hillside in the background, to the north. These fields were badly waterlogged in winter but the crop has grown and flowered surprisingly well, apart from some gaps where the water lingered longest. By late April these fields were humming with bumblebees, visiting all those flowers. There are skylarks nesting in the tractor wheelings.

The hawthorn hedges in the middle distance, above, were planted when the land was restored after opencast mining, about twenty five years ago.

Two pastures on my route were ploughed about a month ago and resown - most likely with a forage grass. The first shoots began to appear in mid-April - and so did the rabbits.

One large field on my route has been sown with field (faba) beans Vicia faba, the smaller-seeded agricultural version of broad beans. I spent a substantial part of my scientific career breeding this crop and studying its floral biology, so it is good to see it planted close to home. The flowers are very valuable for bumblebees and have a delightful, intoxicating fragrance early in the morning. It's usually grown as a component of animal feed.

Still bare trees in mid-April, but the hawthorn hedges are coming into full leaf.

The point on the walk where I turn and head for home. Beyond lies Weardale, with the river Wear, becks and fellsides,dippers, moorland birds, hay meadows, woodlands; all that will have to wait for a few months yet.