Starry Bluebells

As a small child, in the primary school playground and at birthday parties, I used to play a ring game with my friends called "In and Out the Starry Bluebells". My surname then was "Starkey", so needless to say the words were usually changed to "In and Out the Starkey Bluebells"!

In those days I had never seen bluebells en masse, but now I am fortunate enough to live in a village where there is an ancient wood which is full of bluebells in Spring. They are finally in flower, a good fortnight later then last year. Sadly my photos don't do them justice, but I wanted to try to capture something of the loveliness of the blue carpet they make...

Cherry Blossom Morning

A good side -effect of keeping hens is that I need to go outside first thing each morning to let them out of their house and feed them. This is a great way to get myself fully awake each morning and connect with what the weather is doing and the beauty ( or otherwise!) of the morning.

Today is definitely a day for beauty - the sky here is a deep clear blue and the sun has a real warmth to it. As I went about my tasks with the hens there was birdsong, bees and butterflies. But best of all was that the flowering cherry trees in the hen pen, whose fat pink buds I've been eyeing up for the past week, have burst into blossom.
We planted these trees two years ago to help prettify this rather ugly area with the compost bins and the oil-tank - you can see these in the picture below, disguised a bit by the blossom, along with our two hens - Edwina and Beryl.

I need to make my morning coffeee now and sit out on the deck to soak up some more of the lovely morning. I hope your morning is as promising as mine.

Lark Ascending

Yesterday late afternoon I had one of those magical experiences with nature that sometimes happen here.
It had been horrible weather all day, cold, windy and raining, and then towards 6pm it suddenly brightened up. We had been in the house all day so I rounded up R. and I. and we went out for a walk to the wood. As we headed home R. decided to take I. for a quick lemonade at the pub and I headed home across the fields alone.
One of the fields I walked past often has skylarks and as I approached I could hear their song. I stopped to listen and look up to see if I could see any when suddenly one took off from the ground right in front of me and hovered in the sky overhead singing loudly - it was a wonderful moment - so unexpected and with the sun out and the sky now bright blue after such a day.
As I walked back along the "Concrete Path" I saw that the wild primroses are out along the verges and I also spotted some tiny wild violets. It reminded me how much I love the changing seasons here...


On the crafting front, I managed this month for the first time to do all the weekly challenges on UK Scrappers and the monthly House Challenge too.
Here is my week 5 challenge LO, which I'm really quite pleased with as it is the second set of photos I attempted to use for this challenge and after a strugle with the sketch provided I like how this has turned out.

First signs of Spring

I know that snowdrops are really the first sign of Spring, but although I love them, they don't make me feel that Spring is on its way because they are so wintry. No, here in the countryside the sight that really gladdens my heart and makes me think longingly but hopefully of the warm, balmy days of Spring and Summer to come, is the beautiful yellow hazel catkins that festoon the hedgrows. Although we do have some hazel in our own garden hedge, we keep it closely trimmed in the winter which meanns the catkins do not have a chance to develop. I also have a Corylus Contorta ( Twisted Hazel) just outside the kitchen window, but this is slower to open its catkins. The place to see them for me and where I took this photo yesterday, is along a farm track which leads from my neighbours garden which we call "the concrete path" and which is a favourite place of ours to walk, cycle, pick blackberries...