When the sun shines through the rain,

watch out for rainbows!

Sunlight’s made of colours –

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet –
all mixed together.

But when sunlight shines through rain,

The raindrops can unmix the colours.
Then ... watch out for rainbows!

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Seeds are so small,
so hard and dry,
like fingernails or grains of sand.
How can they grow into something you can eat?

With your help they can...

Plant them in some soil,

crumbly and moist as cake mix.
Not too deep and not too shallow.
Then water them ... then wait.

Under the earth,

the seeds soak up water, swell, and come to life.

When you see the shoots of green,

you know your seeds aren’t seeds any more,
but baby carrots, squashes, corn and cabbage.
Your tiny seeds have grown into things
that soon you’ll want to eat!
 Peelings from the kitchen,
cuttings from the garden.
Inside the compost bin
they wilt and wither and then rot.
Slowly, over months and months,
they change and turn brown and crumbly ... compost!
Spread it on the garden to make plants grow.

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 Lazy summer warm and sweet.
Long, long days full of bees and flowers.
Time to dip your toes in the sea or watch
the breeze moving through the grass.
Time to pick a ripe tomato right off
the plant and pop it in your mouth.
Time to look at the sky,
and dream.
In the city park at sunrise,

a little brown bird sings,

“Tu-loo, tu-loo, tu-loo,

In the pond at midnight,
chuck, chuck, weeeeeeeee!”
the frog’s throat puffs up to call,
His song says “this tree is mine!”
“Rrrruuup, rrrruuup,

rrruuup, rrruuuuup!”

His song says “I’m the biggest!”

At midday in the hot, dry grass,

a cricket rubs a leg along his wing,

“Chirr chirr, chirr chirr, chirr chirr!”

His song says “come and be my mate!”

Everywhere you go, just listen:

someone’s always singing.

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Without a sound the flowers call out. Buzzzzzzz zzzzzzz...
They shout to insects with their colours, It’s coming from the beehive.
yellow, red and orange, It sounds like sweetness
and the sleepy, sleepy summer.
blue and pink and white,
Hummm mmm…
“Come here! Come here!
The bees bring nectar from the flowers
Just here is where you’ll
for miles around and, in the hive,
find the nectar.” they make it into honey.

Buzzzzz zzzzz…
Hummmmmmmm mmmmmm…
The sound of sweetness and the smell of flowers,
of sunny, sleepy summer –
the sound of honey.

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 Are there baby birds inside the nest yet?
Creep close and listen.
Can you hear tiny little voices calling out?
It’s the chicks, with their beaks wide open,
saying feed me, feed me,
feed me.

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The meadow, full of sunshine,
warm grass and flowers,
has been cut for hay
and swirled up into big round bales.

They’ll be stacked inside the barn now,

high as the roof,
storing summer’s goodness
for the cows to eat when winter comes.

Slowly, slowly down the track,

the cows come to be milked.
Underneath their udders swing,
full and heavy, hard to carry.

Afterwards, back in the meadow,

the cows graze in the sun.
All day eating, all day chewing,
making milk from grass again.

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 And when they’ve finished growing,

they make a bag

that’s called a chrysalis

and go to sleep inside it.

What’s eating the leaves,

making them like lace and rags?

Caterpillars.

Caterpillars. Inside,

the caterpillar

changes to a butterfly.

If you don’t believe it, look!

A chrysalis

is splitting open...

You can watch

It’s all they do, the wings unfolding in the sunshine.

eat leaves and grow and grow... A butterfly.

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 Sweep the net through the water,
then tip your catch into a jar.
Now take a look.
Newts or fishes?
Beetles? A squishy mass of eggs?
Wiggly worms or things with lots of legs?
Maybe you can work out what they are
or maybe not.
The lovely thing with pond dipping
is just looking.
And when you’re done – gently pour them back.

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Along the beach are pools the sea has left behind,
caught between the rocks or scooped in sand.

There are wide pools, where the weed waves like a forest
and small fish swim like flocks of birds.

There are deep pools, with dark ravines and canyons

where the fiercest crabs can hide and snap their claws.

There are pools all filled with sunlight

and the sudden sparkle of backward-swimming shrimps.

Each pool is a little world all of its own

and you can be the first person to discover it.
 Fans and cones and spirals
Lying in the sand, Slowly, slowly the tide creeps in.
White and pink and yellow It trickles into rock pools,
In my hand. it nibbles at your sandcastle,
then washes it away.
Pyramids and angel’s wings
Lying in the sand, At last the bay is full of sea,
Pearly cream and midnight black like a brimming cup.
In my hand. And all the beach is underwater,
in another world,
Bishop’s hats and triton’s horns
until tomorrow.
Lying in the sand,
Needle sharp and mirror smooth
In my hand.

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Quick as a blink.
What was it?
Fast as thinking –
There, then not there.
Quick as a blink.

Quick as a blink.
Eyes glinting,
Tail whipping,
Tongue flicking.

It’s a lizard!
Quick as a blink.

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 The breeze shivers through the barley
and the sea sighs.
Far away an owl is calling
and a star shines.
The moon sails white and silver
in the dark sky.
Sometimes you can feel
sometimes you can feel
sometimes you can feel the world is turning.

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 They look very silly when they are
taking a dust bath.

They perch in the funniest places.

They will eat the caterpillars

on your vegetables, and chase flies
(which is very funny).

The cockerel looks so sweet when he roosts

with his wings around his hens.

Collecting eggs when they are still warm

from under the hen is wonderful.

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 It’s a moth.
Phuttt! Phutttt!
It flies at night
Something’s battering the light bulb,
and steers by the moon’s glow.
fluttering and fussing.
It got muddled by the lamplight,

It has wings just like a butterfly, so it flew indoors.

but when it rests

it folds them flat across its back.

Switch off the light

and leave the window open.

It will fly off safe into the dark.

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