The Big Beautiful April Poem

Your April minutiae gathered together

Here it is, the Big Beautiful April Poem! All month you have been leaving your comments on our weekly posts, and answering my question: what have you noticed this week that has felt particularly ‘this week’? In this way we have tracked the tiny shifts in the season as they have happened. But now it is time to take stock, to pull them all together and look back at how the month played out. I will say there is a strong theme of spring not ever quite getting off the ground - lots of hope being clung to each time there is a warm day…followed by resignation as this cold spring goes on and on…

The comments are gathered together in their weeks, so that we can track the changes week by week. There are LOTS, so get yourself a coffee and take your time and have a little read through.

Please leave me a comment at the end and let me know how you enjoyed it!

Baby foxes like tiny fluffy teddy bears, shyly emerging from the undergrowth

Seeking ‘glimmers’ amongst the gloom: the dawn chorus getting louder and busier each morning, the blackbird with his sweet, melodic tunes

Trays of seeds planted in the greenhouse - a warm dry space in all this rain. Within three days the shell cosmos came up!

Morning coffee in the garden despite the rain: raincoat, wellies and coffee cup

Daffodils everywhere and bright green hawthorn

A wild North Sea and an incredible sky with everything at once - iron grey, bright blue, fog and mist, rain, drizzle and bright sunshine, all wrapped up in the energy of the wind

An Easter egg hunt in the garden with my 3 year old granddaughter, eggs falling out of her tiny basket, waiting in the grass to be found again

Primary colours garden - red tulips, yellow daffodils, bluebells and everything else green as green

Opening day of the baseball season, and everything here is covered in yellow pollen

Sleeping with my bedside window wide open through the night and waking to birdsong, and a woodpecker

Lego yellow, solid, bold daffodils

The apple branches I cut to make our Easter tree quietly putting out bright green leaves and blossom in the jug

Daffodils fading, but tulips, flowering currant, bluebells, grape hyacinth, cherries, and viburnum all out or emerging. And a kaleidoscope of shades of green as multiple leaves emerge

Packing away the bunnies, chicks, and colored eggs

Mute swans building their nest on the pond

The sandmartins have returned!

My husband building our new chicken coop! Our chicks arrive in just a couple weeks

Blooming, voluminous, dark cumulus

Standing beneath blue skies with the sun warming my face, a hint of coconut in the breeze from the golden yellow gorse

Circling sunwise at Avebury while the stormy winds blow and the clouds scud across the open skies

Wild garlic unfurling in the woods

Tree pollen and early hayfever replacing winter sniffles

First tawny mining bee and first bat of the year

Scudding clouds, downpours followed by splitting sunlight, a peachy orange sunrise squeezed up between slate grey clouds and blessed blue sky evenings with blustering winds kicking clouds from east to west

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Acres and acres of misty blue below the green canopy, with white petals of wild cherry trees above drifting down like snow

A swift, from my window

The base of the rose arch is full of the spikes of foxgloves and I swear they grow a few centimetres every time I turn my back

Carrots, parsnips, broad beans, French beans and peas sown. Let’s hope they germinate

A drive along a road full of cherry trees which makes me want to stop and stand under them and have it rain the pink gentle blossoms on me

Green tree canopies starting their unfurling, horse chestnuts sending their new leaves up and out like hands reaching to the skies

The smell of cut grass

Goldfinches in the little cherry blossom tree. Hard bright sunshine between hours of rain

Texas and leafy green canopies of tree foliage, bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, roses in full bloom, on the path of totality. A great view of the eclipse with friends in their backyard. Absolutely out of this world; words cannot describe it. An amazing and awestruck, memorable experience

Daffodils bobbing in the breeze, the first blush of buds on tree branches, rabbits once again in the yards, and the return of the bears, overturning our garbage bins

The first ducklings are on the canal, and the geese are very very hissy when you walk past, guarding their clutches of eggs

It hasn't rained all day so far!

First butterfly, and the houses opposite have disappeared behind the greening of the trees

The first swallow has swooped in to our stables today

Seedlings emerging and a wash of chalky blue purple…cornflowers, bluebells and lilac making their mark here in London

A dusty field in northern Mexico witnessing the celestial theatre of heavens turning dark as the moon hides the sun and our star’s ghostly corona is revealed. I feel I have been privy to something deeply sacred and mysterious. It was so moving and powerful. Both ominous and beautiful. I feel so lucky to have seen this

Driving home in the light

Rumbles of thunder, gentle breezes, steady heavy rain showers, warmer nights and best of all, blossoming forsythia, quince, and daffodils

One of my roses has its first bud

Dreamy blue hues, muscari, forget me not, bluebells and scilla

All the heat of the week created the first summer fog, the thick blanket on the Pacific that rolls in and out on a daily basis through the summer months

My oak and ash trees have begun to slowly unfurl their green buds this week. It was only just perceptible, but oak was slightly ahead. In for 'splash'?

An orchestra of lawn mowers

A lapwing twirling and ricocheting up and down above the fields, calling out its radio wave song

Robins nesting in a low birdbox hung on the greenhouse

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Cold wind, being constantly ambushed by rain, grey skies and a general sense of things being held in check

Very early dawn chorus, much ado from the bird world...red winged blackbirds near the wetlands, a hawk carrying a snake, busy bluebirds, squabbles at the meal worm feeder

An exuberant man nearly as old as I skateboarding down a hill

A front garden of bluebells with a narrow path down the middle so I can imagine I'm in the woods, until I can get there

We haven't even closed the curtains at all, just enjoyed the long dusk and moonlight

I washed my bed linen full of joy to be hanging it outside. It rained

Fresh green and lush new leaves, below them a carpet of daisies. The shadows, branches and railings, dappled or stark

First basket of local strawberries

No tights

Fat buds atop the iris stems, the glorious scent of lilac, late daffodils blowing in the (strong!) breeze

Gales, hailstorms, endless rain. My poor tulips are battered

My first swallow of the year swooped over the garden, proving the old saying as summer definitely did not hang around!

After four years of visiting a nature reserve and chasing the bitten booms, we finally got to see one in all its glory. It took off out the reeds and flew almost in slow motion past us to the next reed bed, where it walked along the edge allowing us to see it before taking off again and disappearing into another reed bed. This has been my (autistic) daughter’s most want-to-see bird, I choked seeing her cry with joy at seeing it. It was even more beautiful than people had described

Pointing out cherry blossom to my children on car journeys, while they roll their eyes and think “she’s told us this thousands of times, every single year, she says it”

Summer clothes with cardigans and boots; bluebells taking the baton from wild garlic

Warm moments with bare arms, followed by winds and hail the next day

The first British asparagus. Pots of wild garlic and bluebells beginning to flower beneath my oak tree

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The seeds on my kitchen window sill all sprouting at once, courgette, lettuce, beans, sunflowers, what will I do with 20 courgette plants?

The lilac is blowsy perfumed and feels very French in jugs in the house

Wild garlic pesto astonishingly green and delicious with garlic buds steeped in white wine vinegar for later in the year. Jack in the hedge, fresh sorrel leaves and hawthorn leaves too -garden tea with a slice of lemon

Nettle soup with thyme and cheese scones

Still feeling on hold here, another cold week

First elderflower in blossom - just one splash at the moment, looking forward to the torrent to come

Fresh green leaves. The leaves have grown so much that they envelope the street lights and the light hardly reaches the sidewalks

The acid green of new beech leaves, bluebells, apple blossom - birdsong

Harvesting rhubarb for rhubarb crisp. Slightly tart and very tender under the crispy, sweet oatmeal streusel

Mowed grass for the first time this season

Swallows and skylarks skimming the pool, purple statice carpeting rugged coasts and a warm wind whipping up the sea, bringing sands from the Sahara

The sun has been lovely this week, I’ve had a bug but when I was feeling grotty I dragged out a sun lounger and a blanket and enjoyed the spring air. I was rewarded with a robin chick, chirping for food from its parent. Luckily it was not scared away by my enormous sneezes

One whole day without rain and with warm sunshine - yay!

Swan nesting on a raft in Shadwell Basin, a bright contrast to the dark cumulus reflections

Birdsong, apple blossoms and roses

Savoring the last of spring in a jar, roasted strawberry rhubarb compote

Painting toe nails in expectation of warmth and sunshine

Frothy cow parsley right up to my shoulders in the field behind our house

Another cold and windy week here in North Essex but the foxgloves are in bud and the cuckoos have been calling across the woodlands

Heavy frost again this morning. Please don't let it kill my hydrangea buds

Rain puddles and galoshes and stomping around in puddles

Cherry blossoms raining down in the wind, pollen season and lots of itchy eyes and sneezes

Here in NZ the trees are stripped and we are kicking away leaf drifts. Chasing sparrows off tender kale and broadbeans

A sun burnt nose and all my freckles out!

The sea of bluebells in the woods. The apple blossom with tinges of pink as the buds emerge

The scent, the colour and the sight of the dense swathes of bluebells stretching off into the distance

Isn’t that just magical. I love this exercise in looking back at the whole month. Thank you all for your beautiful contributions, as varied and poetic as ever.

Please leave me a comment to let me know how you are enjoying these posts, and I look forward to starting it all again on Friday!