Muddy wellies and lent lilies

My wellies might be the muddiest they've been since first treading on English soil, 

but yesterday I spotted daffodils in the dappled light of School Lane.

The European wild daffodil is also called the lent lily as it blooms concurrently with the lenten season. The smiling yellow faces of daffodils are such a welcome sight each year. Here in our village they cling to the damp banks of the brook, tall and proud, gazing at their reflection in the swirling water below them. I remember when we first moved here I really appreciated the great number of daffodils planted throughout this corner of Wiltshire. In just about every village we drove through, dense clumps of daffodils greeted us along the roadsides. To have the bright canary yellow colour spreading their cheer after a winter devoid of colour was such a joy to see. 

Spring is starting to creep in, tinging the air with warmth and sunshine, unhurried, but growing in strength with each passing week. Even the chickens agree.

More and more often my wanders up the lane to the farm gate are rewarded with fresh speckled eggs. Never uniform, but always eliciting a smile from me.

Kate  x

2018

Yesterday, the eve of the new year, Alex and I went for a walk along the road to see the swollen brook and consider how likely it might be to flood- it is looking alarmingly high! 

What I was not expecting to see was our neighbours farm-gate stall stocked with eggs! I haven't been able to buy their eggs since August. And yet, here in the bleak midwinter on the cusp of a new year, sat a dozen brown speckled eggs for purchase. 

Not much is growing in the hedgerows at the moment, as you'd expect, so I snapped this pic with a piece of broken pottery that I unearthed in our garden when I was planting out bulbs in the autumn. 

You can see the farm fresh eggs I've managed to buy throughout 2017 HERE and HERE. They became a sort of seasonal study as the months went by and the seasons unfurled all their treasures.

Happy and bountiful New Year blessings.

Kate  x

Speckled eggs

After a half day of sunshine (albeit accompanied by some less than June like temperatures) we are back to dreary autumnal like weather today.

Nice weather for ducks, as they say. We have a rather large family of ducks living near us on the brook, and I'd heard whispers of ducklings, but until yesterday hadn't seen them myself. Three ducklings swam past, stopping to forage round the tree branches the wind has blown into the brook in the last few days.

I've become slightly preoccupied with birdlife of late. I think the British DNA is part Twitcher, so it was only a matter of time. Mr & Mrs Robin are officially nesting in our garden wall. He's always so busy; gathering nesting material, bringing food home, and chasing away sparrows. And he is always, always singing. I was told they do that to deter other birds as they're very territorial. On a couple of occasions i've gotten a little too close to the wall and some very worried robin eyes have peered back at me.
I've also finally been able to entice more birds to the garden by hanging a bird feeder. It took a while, but a group of blue tits now feed from it each afternoon around 4.30pm. They're quite noisy, never hold still for long, but they are my favourite British bird.

It has become habit to embrace what sunny moments we have and walk up the road to our neighbour's farm to buy eggs. I particularly love doing this for the views of the countryside, and to see what is blooming in the hedgerows.

Of course the roads are brimming with cow parsley, and buttercups.
There are blackberry flowers. And daisies.

It is becoming a bit of a seasonal nature study. And quite lovely to document. I think i'll continue through the seasons- soon i'll be able to include actual blackberries, then autumn leaves and so on.

These wild violets threw me yesterday. Just a small patch. I can't work out if they're confused by the weather like the rest of us? I thought wild violets were finished for the spring, but perhaps in shady spots they will keep blooming.

And the eggs, the eggs are a thing of beauty themselves. Never uniform in colour, shape, or size. I love them so much more for their nuances. 

Kate  x