Spring Tonic

The landscape is still mainly brown from the ravishes of winter, but sprinkled across it there are patches of glory - white sloe blossom and the tiniest fresh green buds on trees and shrubs.

Bird song is all around, and if you stand still and shut your eyes, you can easily distinguish the calls of the warblers and song birds - chiff chaffs, great tits, blue tits, robins, black birds and thrushes. It’s wonderful. There are also stone chats. They sit high on the branches of the old and very large hawthorn trees and on fence posts, making their chinking call - it sounds like two stones being banged together.

Other than walking, I’ve sowed seeds (salad leaves, celeriac and cucumber) and baked cakes. Since the first lockdown, homemade cakes and biscuits have become a permanent feature in our house!

Despite a cold northerly wind, the weather today has been glorious and sunny. Such a tonic at this time of year.