The larks are so multitudinous that no distinct song can be caught,
and amidst the confused melody comes the note of the thrush and the
blackbird. A constant under-running accompaniment is just audible in
the hum of innumerable insects and the sharp buzz of flies darting past
the ear. Only those who live in the open air and watch the fields and
sea from hour to hour and day to day know what they are and what they
mean. The chance visitor, or he who looks now and then, never
understands them. While I have lain here, the clouds have risen, have
become more aerial, and more suffused with light; the horizon has become
better defined, and the yellow shingle beach is visible to its extremest
point clasping the bay in its arms. The bay itself is the tenderest
blue-green, and on the rolling plain which borders it lies intense
sunlight chequered with moving shadows which wander eastwards. The wind
has shifted a trifle, and comes straight up the Channel from the
illimitable ocean.
AUGUST
A few days ago it was very hot. Afterwards we had a thunderstorm,
followed by rain from the south-west.
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