This week we've finally reached peak cherry blossom! I am constantly gazing up into a soft pink cloud. Tomorrow I'm hoping to head across to the Meadows for the most glorious display in the city 🌸
There are so many beautiful things about, but I’ve struggled this week with the cold wind, being constantly ambushed by rain, the grey skies (ok there has been a bit of sun too…) and a general sense of things being held in check. There’s always some version of this at this time of year and eventually it passes. It just seems to have got to me this week…
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, cherry blossoms, trees greening out, and an exuberant man nearly as old as I skateboarding down a hill.
Apple Blossom on all 3 of the trees I planted about 10 years ago opposite my house (the council have since planted 50 trees of all sorts next to them!)
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.
and tamarisk all deep rusty red buds before the pink froth emerges.
This week has had so much more light (despite the rain) - sometimes we haven't even closed the curtains at all, just enjoyed the long dusk and moonlight.
Bird song, tears of joy, the return of the sand martins and the first swallow.
Struggling this week with my circadian rhythms after working night shifts . Took my break very late due to a very tough shift sat in the memory garden with a cup of tea and beautiful blue sky developing listening to the birds, reset me for the last few hours of my shift.
Spent yesterday at a nature reserve here in West Yorkshire, delighted to see the sand martins swooping up insects over the lake and enjoying the display by my first swallow of the year. After four years of visiting this 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 🌸
That made me choke up just reading it. We are bird watchers in our family and there is nothing as exciting as seeing a bird you have wished for, it brings such joy. How special and beautiful for you and your daughter.
Oh that’s wonderful, what a special experience. And the way nature was able to give you strength when you needed it that morning in the memory garden. Beautiful.
A few nights ago the sun was setting low and pink and as it dropped it backlit the first tender oak leaves which hung like a shimmer over the still wintry frame of the tree.
No tights for the first time, going out without a coat then shivering in the wind, candles on the horse chestnut tree I planted in the local park as a child
On a separate note, I would love to know or be reminded where people are, as long as they don’t mind sharing. I like to get a mental picture of how the seasons are playing out in different places, especially at times when there are such big differences. Maybe the country and part of the country in the profile? Just a thought anyway…
Fat buds atop the iris stems, the glorious scent of lilac, late daffodils blowing in the (strong!) breeze, seedlings coming from last years' s Californian poppies. Things to make me happy.
No hints of summer here! (Staffordshire, England) The weather has been atrocious - gales, hailstorms, endless rain. My poor tulips are battered. The hedges are looking more green (that lovely bright, fresh lime green when they first come out) and spotting bluebells on the verges has lifted my spirits.
I drove past a blooming Jacaranda tree yesterday here in Lake Worth, Florida. They are few and far between here, blooming for just a few weeks in springtime. And while in Mexico they are more intense shocks of purple, here they are more ethereal, and to pass beneath or near one is to be in a cloudy whispered suggestion of purple. Very subtle and a brief spell of magic, each and every one of them.
Little seedlings starting to burst through the soil. After hints of spring, a few more below freezing nights in the forecast. Hoping for all the little buds and blossoms that have started peeking out to make it through.
This week we've finally reached peak cherry blossom! I am constantly gazing up into a soft pink cloud. Tomorrow I'm hoping to head across to the Meadows for the most glorious display in the city 🌸
Update I was MISTAKEN, we are NOT at peak blossom but I did nonetheless have a nice time looking at blossoms in the park :)
There are so many beautiful things about, but I’ve struggled this week with the cold wind, being constantly ambushed by rain, the grey skies (ok there has been a bit of sun too…) and a general sense of things being held in check. There’s always some version of this at this time of year and eventually it passes. It just seems to have got to me this week…
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, cherry blossoms, trees greening out, and an exuberant man nearly as old as I skateboarding down a hill.
Apple Blossom on all 3 of the trees I planted about 10 years ago opposite my house (the council have since planted 50 trees of all sorts next to them!)
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.
and tamarisk all deep rusty red buds before the pink froth emerges.
This week has had so much more light (despite the rain) - sometimes we haven't even closed the curtains at all, just enjoyed the long dusk and moonlight.
Bird song, tears of joy, the return of the sand martins and the first swallow.
Struggling this week with my circadian rhythms after working night shifts . Took my break very late due to a very tough shift sat in the memory garden with a cup of tea and beautiful blue sky developing listening to the birds, reset me for the last few hours of my shift.
Spent yesterday at a nature reserve here in West Yorkshire, delighted to see the sand martins swooping up insects over the lake and enjoying the display by my first swallow of the year. After four years of visiting this 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 🌸
That made me choke up just reading it. We are bird watchers in our family and there is nothing as exciting as seeing a bird you have wished for, it brings such joy. How special and beautiful for you and your daughter.
Oh that’s wonderful, what a special experience. And the way nature was able to give you strength when you needed it that morning in the memory garden. Beautiful.
So glad you had some joy after a difficult time. Xx
I washed my bed linen full of joy to be hanging it outside. It rained. (West Yorkshire)
Extra rinse 🙂
I’m in West Yorkshire too. I had the same idea and it rained 😂
Oh yes, the canopy. Fresh green and lush new leaves, below them a carpet of daisies. The shadows, branches and railings, dappled or stark.
A few nights ago the sun was setting low and pink and as it dropped it backlit the first tender oak leaves which hung like a shimmer over the still wintry frame of the tree.
We gobbled through our first real basket of local strawberries, and the roses are blooming.
No tights for the first time, going out without a coat then shivering in the wind, candles on the horse chestnut tree I planted in the local park as a child
On a separate note, I would love to know or be reminded where people are, as long as they don’t mind sharing. I like to get a mental picture of how the seasons are playing out in different places, especially at times when there are such big differences. Maybe the country and part of the country in the profile? Just a thought anyway…
I think that is a good idea Anne. I often read and wonder 🌸
Fat buds atop the iris stems, the glorious scent of lilac, late daffodils blowing in the (strong!) breeze, seedlings coming from last years' s Californian poppies. Things to make me happy.
No hints of summer here! (Staffordshire, England) The weather has been atrocious - gales, hailstorms, endless rain. My poor tulips are battered. The hedges are looking more green (that lovely bright, fresh lime green when they first come out) and spotting bluebells on the verges has lifted my spirits.
I drove past a blooming Jacaranda tree yesterday here in Lake Worth, Florida. They are few and far between here, blooming for just a few weeks in springtime. And while in Mexico they are more intense shocks of purple, here they are more ethereal, and to pass beneath or near one is to be in a cloudy whispered suggestion of purple. Very subtle and a brief spell of magic, each and every one of them.
I like hearing about nature in the U.S. as well as the U.K.
Little seedlings starting to burst through the soil. After hints of spring, a few more below freezing nights in the forecast. Hoping for all the little buds and blossoms that have started peeking out to make it through.