Primroses and lichen

We went for our constitutional every morning with Erbie down the lane, on our lovely sunny week away running a real ale pub in the West country - somebody's got to do it! There were violets and celandines a plenty, and a lovely mound of primroses nestled under the dry stone wall. Erbie got to see horses and a pheasant up close, he was very happy, cooing like a wood pigeon on each walk. I had him in the Baby Bjorn on this particular day, but the Guardian reader quite often took him up in the back pack. Fresh air and blue skies, bliss for this dusty London sparrow. One can see how clean the air is by the amount of lichen around, the less pollution the more lichen, this one has probably been growing for over a 100 years.