53 Comments
User's avatar
Forever Hopeful's avatar

Irises standing tall ready to burst like yellow topped paint brushes.

Deep red geraniums doing there thing in terracotta pots on the patio.

Expand full comment
Jarvis Green's avatar

Planting potatoes and onions in the garden in the dark of the moon. Enjoying meals of freshly foraged asparagus and morels. Lilacs and Dogwoods in all their glory this week.

Expand full comment
Art Vandelay's avatar

Today in Newcastle upon Tyne it is not raining and I heard the slap of sandals on pavement for the first time this year as I was refilling the front garden bird feeder.

Expand full comment
Lou B's avatar

Wishing you a very happy birthday!🎂

Turned the central heating off this week inside. So much greenery and expansion of the colour pallet of flowers outside in Ayrshire 🙂

Expand full comment
Rosamund Saunders's avatar

Lying in the sun on the cool grass, watching the crows teasing dogs on Hampstead Heath

Expand full comment
Anne's avatar

Love that image! 😄

Expand full comment
Charlotte Standish's avatar

The cuckoo!I am in the Highlands walking and the call of the cuckoo has accompanied me each day- heard and saw a curlew and the first swifts

Expand full comment
Sue's avatar

Happy Birthday Lia - it's great to enjoy the profusion of colours and shapes in the countryside around - looking closely at the fluffy white cow parsley, I realise how pretty it is.

Expand full comment
The Rebel Stargazer's avatar

That first feeling of proper sun on bare arms, sitting on a deck chair in the garden reading, bees buzzing around flowers, cat on my lap.

Expand full comment
Cathryn Thompson's avatar

Many Happy Returns Lia! We had a walk along the coast path this week at the marshes, spotting avocets, oystercatchers, egrets and sandpipers. Sunshine and a picnic on a bench bringing summer ever closer.

Expand full comment
Charlotte Stein's avatar

Happy Birthday Lia! Spotting butterflies in a local field this week made me happy 🦋

Expand full comment
Anne's avatar

Happy birthday Lia, that certainly was a magical start to the day! No swifts here in our part of Sheffield yet, but this week the warm weather has made everything feel different. Cake and later cocktails in the garden for my husband’s birthday on Wednesday, the hawthorn tree in the garden finally in full flower, the energy of everything growing and expanding. Just wonderful.

Expand full comment
Sue Armstrong's avatar

Beautiful images dear Anne!

Expand full comment
Rachael's avatar

Happy birthday Lia.

This last week I’ve been on watch and wait for the swifts, none back with us yet in South Norfolk. Hurriedly playing catch up by sowing seeds that I should have planted weeks ago when the weather was less inspiring. Have a wonderful week everyone. X

Expand full comment
Frances Ray's avatar

A belated Happy Birthday, Lia. You had a bountiful week! I'm looking forward to Amazon USA stocking the new book. Congrat's!

My observations this week:

Almost overnight the world has turned green, punctuated by the bright orange of Baltimore Orioles, reds of Scarlet Tanagers and resident Cardinals, black-capped Chickadees, and if you look very closely, tiny bumble-bee sized hummingbirds darting to nectar feeders.

Expand full comment
Amy's avatar

Quick note - I'm in the US, too and purchased it through amazon.uk - they handle the currency calculations seamlessly.

Expand full comment
Frances Ray's avatar

Thank you so much, Amy. I'm going to do it now.

Expand full comment
Kat's avatar

It's my dream to see a tiny humming bird in real life. I think they must be one of the cutest things nature has to offer us. You're so lucky to be able to witness them 😊

Expand full comment
Frances Ray's avatar

Yes, Kat, they are amazing. They hum like a bumble bee, are fast as lightning, and the males are especially beautiful. I take great delight in them and consider myself very lucky.

Expand full comment
Kat's avatar

Oh I'm so envious but very happy to know you get to experience such a beautiful thing. Just having the knowledge that it exists and somebody is able to have that connection with nature gives me a lot of joy.

Expand full comment
Mo's avatar

The canopy of lime green beech trees, so fresh and sudden!

A red kite circling overhead as I lay on the grass.

and Queen wasps - found one in my shepherd's hut bed as I was airing it from winter, then at least 5 came scoping out the joint for a possible nesting site, (or maybe it was the same one on repeat visits?)

Expand full comment
Amy's avatar

Discovered a new spring ephemeral growing in my yard: "Glory in the Snow" - lovely little blue flowers amongst the carpet of wild violets. Shoveling fresh cedar mulch in the rain: the smell of spring. (Amy in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan).

Expand full comment
Sarah B's avatar

Happy birthday! Echoing everyone's birding tales... We've been standing in the park, watching small birds whirl over our heads and trying to catch a glimpse long enough to tell swift from swallow from house martin. If only they'd sit still! And this morning, i noticed the glitter of dew in the scrubby sides of the railway path, as a chaffinch sang its bubbly song at top volume in my ear.

Expand full comment