Hertfordshire to Oxfordshire, a delightful journey.

We are on the way to Rick and Juliet's home, the baby is due in nine days time, our first great grandchild.

The English countryside is so pretty, the verges and fields are a bright emerald green, or in some places bright yellow as fields of rape continue to change our countryside. I must admit for the first time this year I have found an occasional field of bright yellow rape startlingly eye catching.

Everywhere I look the trees and bushes are amazing they are so fresh and green.

Horse chestnuts carry their white or deep pink candles proudly, while the may flowers drip the full length of their branches and in some cases the weight of the flowers causes the branches to bow and they touch the ground. Large, flat heads of elder flowers and a surprising number of laburnum trees, with their beautiful yellow, weeping racemes line the verges.

Here and there a beautiful copper beech stands out elegantly among the endless variety of green shades of foliage.The oak trees are coming into leaf, they are always a little later than the other trees, from a distance they are quite distinctive, not only by their shape but also by the colour of their young foliage, which looks a greenish brown mossy colour, although up close the young leaves have a reddish/browny hue.

The verges are prettied up by pink campion, tall white daisies, cow parsley, yellow rape, reddish sorrel and here and there dusky pink patches of red clover and many yellow gorse bushes. While high in the trees hang great green balls of mistletoe.

The only bird seen was a pigeon.

Other surprising trees seen alongside the M40 were snowball trees (I look upon these as garden shrubs), we passed an enormous gorse bush and another laburnum. Primroses are over, but in their place are huge banks of cowslips.

Almost there and we spot a field of cows and their calves, the youngsters are delightful they are running, jumping and gamboling like lambs. Interestingly we see lambs and they are not running, jumping and gamboling as one would expect but are sedately standing still beside their splotch bottomed mothers or slowly walking about.

We pass a huge stretch of buttercups on the verge with one solitary white milkmaid plant.

We are now driving through the restful grey stone cottages of Oxfordshire and we are treated to bright yellow wall flowers and pink valerian growing out of chinks and crevasses in walls.

This has been a delightful journey, with two very special people waiting to greet us at the end.