Week 15
Umbrellas
Hello! A super quickie from me this week as I am away. Yes, again! The Almanac 2027 has been handed in - hooray! - and I am off gallivanting in Prague.
But I hate us to miss a week so…this is our weekly post in which we chart the seasons by noting the minutiae around us: what have we noticed that felt seasonal this week? What is particular to this moment in the year?
Mine was these horse chestnut leaves, always the first of the trees to green up.
Now over to you. Leave yours in the comments please!
The air is so mild and friendly. I have the window open again in my bedroom all night and while the birds start singing in the pre-dawn light, and more and more voices join their chorus, there is a point where suddenly someone has turned up the volume and from one moment to another it becomes this unmissable wall of sound and joy. For a very few minutes, it towers over the land, all the birds united in song, before it crests and rolls off again, breaking into trills and whistles and the busy-ness of bird life in spring. It's the best, best way to wake up. ♥️
Oh, and also: the sight of so many little bird friends, busily plucking the fluffy, brushed-out dog hair from where I hung it up in a bird feeding system for building their nests. 🐦🐣
The starlings are busy gathering nesting material. They are particularly fond of picking the papery bark from the silver birch in the back garden and of gathering the remains of twigs and dry grass shredded by the council lawnmower on the small patch of grass out front. Then, satisfied with their haul they fly off to the spaces under the eaves of the houses opposite.