Spring has been teasing us through March but the early part of this week has made up for that. With the sunshine the banks along the lanes have exploded into colour with a diverse mix of wild flowers. Bluebells are for me the bells of the April Ball but none of these wild flowers are wallflowers. Dainty stitchwort growing delicately in amongst grasses, the soft mauve hues of the milk maids and bouquets of primroses in swarths along these banks. Violets just blooming under the rapidly greening hedgerows. Fabulous – then to cap it off today 16th April, as if to really confirm that Spring has arrived, I heard the cuckoo for the first time this year. It called for about half and hour and then I saw it fly off directly towards the north east. I have never heard and seen the cuckoo for the first time both on the same day and by evening someone else will have the pleasure of hearing him call. It is exactly as Robert Browning wrote “OH, to be in England now that April’s there”.
