Tender hands

Birdsong was everywhere as i walked today and I definitely felt a new warmth and energy in the ground. The chill wind still made me put on my woolly hat and gloves but even so I felt a smile on my face as I smelt that spring was really underway, albeit a month late. I made a slight detour in my walk on the moor and made my way between the young Scots pines, enjoying the view of the hills that was still visible but may be hidden by next year as the young trees grow taller. As i bounced from one soft tussock to the other I came across some mixed planting and was delighted to see the new spring growth at the extremities of the small branches. If you go LARGE you can see the soft hairs along the stems, but even at this size you can see how tenderly the leaves have enclosed the greeny red clusters of flower buds as protection against the severe cold winds of late. Only now are they beginning to release their treasure so it can burst freely in the sunshine.. I am afraid I am fairly ignorant when it comes to trees so perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what this one might be - there are quite a few of them in amongst the plantation of pines.

Then I had a bizarre conversation this afternoon with a gentleman from my bank who was trying to answer a couple of questions I had. Unfortunately - for me - he had a very thick dialect and spoke very quickly. It wasn't until we were well into our conversation, during which time I had to frequently ask for him to slow down, that I realised he was calling me a funny name. It turned out that he was calling me Mrs Ba, instead of my real name, as on my bank account my name ends with the initials BA. I have no idea why they have this but I had to explain to him that I was not Mrs Ba and that it merely meant that I had a BA degree! Gave me a chuckle though.