It's Spring Again

I was in Glasgow, Ayr and Callander this week. I didn't see the sun at all. However the Isle of Lewis basked in the sun whilst I was away.  I arrived back late last night and spent a good bit of today settling back in. I also spent some time in the garden. I had made sure that the lawnmower was emptied of petrol and cleaned when it retired for the winter so today I decided to see if it would come back to life. It did, so I cut the grass. I also adjusted the water in the pond and cleaned out lots of pondweed which had suddenly been activated by the sunny weather. It must, therefore, be Spring. 

Just a few of the hundreds of daffodils in the garden

The first batch of tadpoles have left their spawn embryos and are now a writhing mass.

What really struck me today, though, was the fact that it was still light at 9pm. In two months on a night like tonight (ie cloudless) there will be no night-time.  How fast the seasons come and go.

Lengthening Days

For the last few years when I have spent much of my winter in this country I have looked forward to spring. Before the decade of winters spent in New Zealand I didn't think about winter in a negative way at all. I worked during the day and  I hunkered down at night and did winter things. Now the days when it's dark until after 8am and dark again by 4pm have begun to pall. More than that, though, is the uncertainty of being able to leave the Island. Winter gales often stop the ferries and even, on occasion, the planes. However as I can't take my car on the plane and, being over 70, I can't hire a car at my destination I rarely fly unless I'm going abroad.

This year we've actually had one of the sunniest winters on record although that hasn't stopped the gales and rain from playing their usual part in our lives.

But there are signs of Spring. Yesterday the Blackbirds were singing their hearts out as the light faded and I heard a Wren. Today I saw a Wren in the garden and the frogs  decided it was party time and the first spawn appeared about 10 days earlier than the last time I can recall the event.

"Spring is Sprung"

Ma Bunny said "and now we should get out of bed." For many years I had it in my head that this was a quotation from some other source.  It would appear, however, that it is a figment of my own imagination. That's unusual because imagination is definitely not my strong point.  

Of course there is another poem that my brother and I learned as wee children:

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, 

I wonder where the boidies is
The boid is on the wing,
But that’s absoid
The wing is on the boid!

Oddly enough when I did a brief Google search I got many and varied results including the easily verifiable statement that it was by Winnie the Pooh although I certainly don't recall it and, as I'm not at home, I can't verify that. One of you, my readers, will know though.

 

I've been in Glasgow - Bishopbriggs to be precise -  for most of the week and today it's been 20ºC.  Perfect for Anna to get into the garden and for me to be helping with a bit of labouring. However as it's Easter Day it's been a family day for Anna and we've enjoyed company instead. Now it's evening and quiet but it's still warm and the sun is thinking of dipping below the horizon.

It does make me feel that it's time to celebrate what feels like the first day of Spring.

If the bee had been less active or I had been more adept I might have got a decent photo of my first bee of the year. 

The camillias in Anna's garden are flowering

in fact some are in full bloom

On the washing there was a Seven Spot Ladybird. I had no idea they could be out so early.

Getting ready for flight

Homebuilder

Spring is here.  The Sparrows are nesting under my eaves.  Well, to be exact, under the eaves of the house.  And wooing too.

Spring

I’ve never really been as aware of Spring here on Lewis as in other places I have been because it is not a place full of blossoms and trees bursting forth with new green shoots.  But it’s not without them:

Cherry blossom in Stornoway

Gorse at Garrabost.  The buildings are the Garrabost Mill which still produces barley meal.

Loggerheads

As children CJ and I walked the Leet many times. Often as youngsters we would be brought by Dad on the Crosville bus to Loggerheads and walk along the Leet to Pantymwyn and get the bus back to Birkenhead from there. Looking back on it it was a real day out involving much time and travel. Now that we get in a car and the journey can be done in a tiny fraction of the time I'm sure that we don't appreciate it anywhere near as much. In those days the Leet was a narrow footpath and parts of it were very dangerous with the path clinging gingerly to the side of the hill with a considerable fall if one missed one's footing (and no mobile phone to summon help!). The river was usually dry because it was diverted into the lead mines which were worked under the adjacent hill. So at least there was no chance of drowning if one fell! Now the area is very well developed for tourism with an excellent path and lots of ancillary activities.

A new sculpture outside the café

The Leet

CJ in his usual pose photographing a beetle.

The Leet

Isn't Spring so beautiful?

Such a fresh green

I have never been conscious of so many Dandelions as I was today.