Friday 6 January 2012

SPRING IS ON ITS WAY !



It is a beautiful morning today - the high winds from the last few days have dropped, and the sun is out! I wanted to take my camera with me when I took the dog for a walk in the Park, but it is too difficult to manage with a dog at the extreme end of a long lead, wanting to get on, a stick in one hand, and my camera in my third hand!! (If only!)

I had to keep the dog on the lead as he has been quite poorly - entirely his own fault, I might add, as he did a runner on me on Tuesday and found a lot of rather nasty bread. He was so ill afterwards I wondered if he had been poisoned, but the Vet didn't think so, and he seems very frisky today. His dinner has progressed from nothing at all (yesterday) to plain boiled rice and a small amount of poached chicken. Poached in the microwave, not obtained at night with a gun!

So I had to use my ears and eyes and not my camera this morning. The birds were twittering away, I heard sparrows and tits (two sorts) I spotted a robin, and the gulls and ducks on the lake were making their usual cacophony!

The snowdrops are very nearly out, the buds are there, but they have not dropped their heads yet. Bulbs are coming up, and the ornamental bushes are beginning to sprout tiny leaves.

On the minus side, the grass is exceptionally muddy in places, and the paths round the tennis courts are still flooded. The frost, plus energetic tree roots are cracking the paths round the lake in several places, and its a bit tricky for the unwary. Well, and the wary too, if, like me, they use a stick!

In our own garden the bulbs are coming up. The picture above was taken last year, but they looked identical this morning! We keep the bird feeders filled, and have had Redpoll and Siskins, plus the usual Greenfinches, sparrows, Great and Blue Tits, a Coal tit, Chaffinches and a Robin. But we have not had the numbers we had last year. Still there is a lot of winter to come yet, and presumably there is a lot of natural food around for them.

If the weather is nice I will try to get out at the weekend, and take my camera. You must be fed up with reading about the Park and my Garden!

6 comments:

21 Wits said...

I think it's comeing here too, for a few days...this has been a really strange winter! But I'm not complaining! Love the new growth...it is such a promise for the beauty that soon will burst!

cheshire wife said...

It is good to see the bulbs coming up but I am sure that winter has not done with us yet.

Hollace said...

I liked your poaching joke =) You must be awfully good to the birds for them to gather in your yard like that. I admire your ability to name them all.
I enjoy every walk vicariously. You make me feel the spring air and beware the roots underfoot.

Diane said...

I hope you are right - I hope that Spring is JUST around the corner. My bulbs are up much earlier than usual xxx

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

More sun, more light and longer days - something for us all to look forward to. Glad to know that your dog is getting better, Gilly. x

Fat Dormouse said...

I hope the dog is feelng more perky soon.
You've shared some lovely photos with us - I love daffodils as a sign of Spring.