Catching Up

Hello there! I've been out of the loop for a little while, and my visits to blogland have been almost non-existent over the last week and a half. This was due to two very busy weekends, a birthday and an achey, shivery bug which didn't keep me off work but made me head for bed early most evenings last week. It's so good to back here again!

We've had some amazingly warm spring sunshine over the last few days, and it's been a novelty to wander outside after work looking at the flowers which are coming out in all this warmth. The tiny purple crocuses glow when the late afternoon sun catches them.

And the periwinkle has opened its first little flower. Someone's been nibbling it - a bird perhaps?

The primroses are beginning to open too.

They really are happy little flowers that provide a tiny splash of colour if you look for them.

I bought this frilly ice-cream coloured one last week, and love its pink and peach ruffles.

The daffodils are almost out.

Perennials like aquilegias are starting to unfurl their pretty foliage after a winter of underground sleep.

On the contorted hazel there are some delightfully long, elegant catkins which swing gently when the breeze catches them.

Yesterday afternoon P and I had a short walk along our local cycleway. It was so warm and sunny that coats were not needed. I love that delicious moment after a long winter when you realise that you can leave your coat indoors - proof indeed that spring has sprung! The trees are still in bud and in the sunlight cast their strong linear shadows across the path as we walked, dazzling us at times.

I love the lines created by flights of winding steps as they disappear from sight, inviting you to rush up them and explore.

We also saw one of my favourite little creatures, a grey squirrel. One day I'd love to visit one of those parts of Britain that still has red squirrels and see one in the flesh, but their bigger, more successful counterparts are still very appealing. Sadly I will never make a wildlife photographer, but here are my less-than-impressive efforts to capture this little fellow as it scrabbled and twitched its way along a fence and around a tree.

I hope that wherever you are you have been enjoying some sunshine, and I'm going to spend the next day or two catching up on what you've all been up to.

It's good to be back x