Spring is here part II: a calendar year in the countryside

I mentioned last week in my first post about the beginning of spring that every day this year I’m reading The Shakespeare Almanac by Gregory Doran. I’m also reading a book called Wonderland, day by day.

Every day in the book focuses on a different aspect of flora and fauna in the UK, as the seasons change. It gets you looking around more when you’re walking, even in places you think you know inside out.

Suddenly, you notice how early in the year bumblebee appear; You start looking more closely at the mosses clinging to the trees, now that you recognise there are so many varieties (and that they are a sign of clean air); It means something special to wait a whole year for the bluebells to shoot up out of nowhere again and carpet the trees you’ll walk by, or anticipate the elderflower blooming on the trees again, sugar and water at the ready to make new batches of cordial.

Most of us have been in pretty much the same place day in, day out over the past year – we’ll all have noticed more of nature, even just out of our windows. The dawning of spring, the changing of clocks, the lengthening of days. It means more to us all than it maybe ever has done before.

I wanted to mark this by going back (sorry, clocks) for a brief moment. Back over my calendar year spent living in the countryside, on the Somerset Dorset border. Four beautiful seasons from one doorstep:

(Sound on!)

Wherever you are in the world, near or far – whether you’re at the start of spring or the beginning of autumn – I hope you are also enjoying the changing of the seasons and the festivals that surround these important times in the calendar.

I’m going to be taking a break over Easter myself, returning on Sunday 11th April with a special focus on global vaccination efforts, following World Health Day on 7th April.

Until then!