Spring sneaks up on you. There are a lot of very small changes that make very little difference and then everything explodes into action. One day you can see through the woods, the next, there are so many leaves that you can’t. One day there is just a little bit of growth in the grass, the next there seem to be cowslips and snakes head fritillaries all around. One day you start to notice the leaves of lesser celandine and creeping buttercup, the next they are in flower.
Spring came alive this weekend. Great spotted woodpeckers were calling and drumming. We seem to have four chiffchaffs singing in the woods this year. The yellowhammer are in song. Buzzards are swooping over the clearings and meadows. The tall grass is shaking and waving as the field voles dispute their rights to use the runs under the thatch. Other butterflies are joining the brimstones on the wing – small tortoiseshell, peacock and comma. The bees are coming alive in their hives and nests, returning home with little pollen sacs stuffed full. The woods start to smell of wild garlic. The skylark is in song all day – the song gets into your head, so much that when you return home, it remains with you, like an echo.
The coming of spring seems like a miracle every year, for all that now understand its genesis in the travel and alignment of the Earth around the Sun. It is so very exciting.
Again your photographs are a delight. After many years hidden away, I think I will have to get my pencils & paintbox out! These little flowers are just wonderful.
Thank you, you are really very kind. I think they would lend themselves to a painting or drawing very well.
Spring is very exciting and your photographs are really lovely, the Comma butterfly on the catkins is especially good.
Love your photo of the Comma and kind of inspired to try a few flowers after seeing your photo of the Lesser Celandine.