Have you noticed it’s Spring? I have, and it lifts my spirits.
- the first Brimstone in my garden was in January, and the second in February, but now they are frequent visitors along with Peacocks. You don’t get butterflies in winter so it must be Spring!
- less than a mile from my house there is a Red Kite sitting on a nest, again. You don’t do that unless it’s Spring.
- a visit to my local patch of Stanwick Lakes last Wednesday produced my first singing Chiffchaff of the year (you may have heard one long before I did). That is the starting gun for Spring as far as I am concerned; although there are wintering Chiffchaffs at my local patch there is no going back from the first song. Before Chiffchaff song, it is winter, from first Chiffchaff song, it is Spring.
- in the garden, the aconites have come and gone (all too briefly with us, I like them a lot), the snowdrops are going over, the crocuses are peaking, the daffodils are coming out and beginning to make a show, the forsythia is springled with yellow and there is a daisy in flower on the garden path which I carefully avoid stepping on as it is the first one.
- a pair of Woodpigeons are nesting in the ivy on the shed, or at least I hope they are otherwise they are wasting an awful lot of time carrying sticks in there. I also spent some time yesterday sitting in the garden watching a Collared Dove strutting around picking up sticks and, apparently, rejecting all of them, some several times over, and I’m not sure it’s quite got the hang of nesting.
- I am more and more likely to spot circling Buzzards overhead on warm days and sometimes they are in pairs, apparently marking out their territories.
- as I sat in the garden yesterday morning, reading a book that I will review here on Sunday, a House Martin flew north up the road towards the church. That was a bit of a shock – as far as I can tell it’s my earliest House Martin, and I am told the first in Northants this year. I haven’t seen a Swallow or Sand Martin yet.
Sign of spring. Backache from digging. Female blackbird and a robin now my best friends. Anybody ever heard a worm curse?
Lathyrus vernus is good value. No maintenance required, very early flowering ie a couple of weeks ago, long flowering duration, perennial, spreads via seeding, nothing appears to eat it, doesn’t appear to have any fungal or bacterial diseases.
And good for bees apparently. I may well give it a go! Thank you.
Went out into the garden yesterday to feed the birds and found a lovely patch of lesser celandine flowers in full bloom which I did not know were there. With their petals fully open they looked just like an array of suns. Spring was here, just about.
I heard somewhere that aboriginal Australians (if that’s the acceptable description these days), reckon on there being 8 seasons, not just wet season / dry season. And all determined by natural events of course. We are much too cut off from the changing natural calendar in this country. I like your signs of spring though.
Spring is certainly here, on sunny days Buff-tailed Bumblebees bumbling, our Honey bees have been coming out for ages on warmer days since the snowdrops were flowering. The hens are laying well, Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush and Robin have been joined by blackbird chaffinch, Nuthatch, Great Tit and Dunnock. the frog spawn is maturing there are toads in the ponds and ditch, Celandines, Coltsfoot and Primroses are flowering, there are fairy elf cups on the wood piles. Goshawks, Buzzards and Kites are skydancing whilst the ravens are carrying food to newly hatched young. Great isn’t it.