Pussy Willow

Day 365 since the first lockdown began. A year like no other in my experience. Shielding and retirement were added to the mix.

Thank goodness we did not plan one of those “holidays of a lifetime” to celebrate retirement, preferring to just enjoy the Spring and adjust to a different pace before doing anything. Although the adjustment when it came was not quite what we had in mind - Spring enjoyed from our garden.

So another Spring, one year on. I have no idea how this year will pan out - no one does - but we’ll continue to enjoy the small things. The pussy willows are out, and today we heard our first chiffchaff of the year. This warbler’s song, just two notes repeated, alerts us to the return of one of our first summer migrants. Some of the winter migrants are still here - we saw a flock of redwings before we heard the chiffchaff - so we are in that interesting period when we have not fully left one season behind before entering another.