I bloomin' love Spring. You suddenly feel alive again.
Yesterday we started tractor operations on the farm for the first time this year (we were cultivating lightly between the delphiniums) and, after months of being confined to the yards and buildings, it was like being allowed out to play by your mum.
The soil is is wonderful condition after the long winter and the plants are all breaking through the ground. It will be some time before we can consider deep cultivations and planting crops - the ground is still wet and cold - but it is joyous to be making a start.
In other bird news. Yesterday there was a most almighty kerfuffle at Vickers Farm, our trial nursery, when a sparrowhawk attacked, killed and subsequently ate a jay.
I'm not a fan of animals scrapping as a rule but these are both impressive (predatory) birds so the contest was a spectacle to behold. The sparrowhawk was certainly rather plucky and the jay put up a noble fight, squawking all the way (bloomin' 'eck I had a devil of a job spelling squawking, did I do any good?). They were both completely oblivious to their spectators.
I'm really going to have to buy an SLR camera, aren't I?
Mr. Naylor, So glad to have found you again. Now I can follow you and be charmed (or alarmed) daily.
Couldn't agree more, its like being born again to be out in the sun rather than fighting with snow and ice in the dark!