Signs of Spring!

I know the Spring Equinox isn't for another six weeks but with Imbolc just past you can really feel the earth waking from her long winter slumber.  I took Action Dog for a walk today, her first proper walk since the operation which saved her life two weeks ago.  We didn't go far, just along a local lane to look at the hedgerows for signs of rebirth.

As we walked the feeling of a change in seasons became stronger and stronger, I could almost smell it in the air.  All around me other humans were responding to the change, probably without even knowing why.  As I walked past a row of bungalows at the start of the lane many of their owners were outside tidying flowerbeds and doing minor repairs.  One was even on his roof jet washing the tiles to remove thick moss!  I found it interesting that people respond to the calls of nature by instinct just like the rest of nature that so many people consider themselves to be so separate from.

Most of the hedgerows along the lane had been recently trimmed but there were one or two showing signs of first growth.  I have Snowdrops in bloom in my garden.  I planted them last year underneath my precious Hawthorn tree which I call my Spirit Tree.  There are Daffodils coming up everywhere in the wood.  They are the only bulb which the Pheasants don't eat and there are massive clumps of them out there.  

The animals can feel it too.  My doves are nesting again.  Mind you they barely stop for the winter, just a few weeks off and away they go again.  I have seen Blue Tits prospecting nest boxes and Robins chasing each other about.  I've even seen Wood Pigeon doing their wing clap display over the house.  

It really is a glad to be alive time and of course that is literal for wild creatures, they really must be glad to have survived the hardship of winter.