Tumbling water

A rare day on which I've managed two different walks, neither of them particularly long, but both lovely.

Val and I walked down to Sheffield Botanical Gardens together this morning, from her house.  The Gardens are always beautiful, and today there were carpets of crocuses (croci...?), among other delights.

This afternoon Richard and I walked a section of the Rivelin Valley Trail.   The river is full of small rocky outcrops and little waterfalls, and alongside it are the remains of the 17th/18th century networks of watermill pools and channels where grinders sharpened blades in the early decades of Sheffield's metal-working industry.  There's always plenty to see. We also spent some happy minutes listening to a pair of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers nearby, and eventually Richard saw them high up in the branches.

The news from Ukraine continues to be an overwhelming mixture.... stories of astonishing bravery and resilience on the Ukrainian side; speculation of all kinds about what desperate next steps an increasingly beleaguered Vladimir Putin might take.  I can't find words to capture the sheer level of destruction in Ukrainian villages, towns and cities.  In another life,  Sheffield was twinned with Donetsk -  mining and steel-working being common ground - and I remember my ex-husband Graham leading visits of Sheffield trades unionists and tenants' groups to Kyiv and Donetsk.