A lovely spring day here. The cherry blossom outside our house is out, and it’s beautiful.

We took RTL and FFS down to Windsor Great Park, where they had a lot of fun. RTL has found a new lease of life with FFS by her side, and has rediscovered her interest in other dogs. FFS, like most puppies, loves other dogs.

I saw some lovely examples of mosses and liverworts. I’ve always had a soft spot for bryophytes (the taxon encompassing both mosses and liverworts): they aren’t showy plants, but they have a certain beauty. Pictured above is Polytrichum, one of the most distinctive of all mosses, and certainly the biggest. Below is a liverwort, possibly Marchantia, with sporophytes visible. If you look hard you can see one that hasn’t burst yet, with its black spore capsule looking a bit like a snail’s eye.

One wine to report on: The Ned Pinot Noir 2009 from Brent Marris, in New Zealand’s Marlborough region. It’s reassuringly pale in colour, with lovely sweet and sour aromatics. Approaching real elegance, with a bit of herby bite. It’s widely available, and quite good value at around £12. I notice that Bob Campbell doesn’t like it much, with the 2008 scoring just 81 points. I’d have this vintage closer to 90. I kept going back for another taste – a sign of an interesting wine.