still only almost there

and so we wait with baited breath for things to begin to grow, and some warmth in our old bones. Last year our magnolia stellata was in full bloom by now, but it is still only at the bud stage this year. My heart sank when I heard that someone is once again predicting a hot dry summer. This will be the fourth or fifth year in a row that the same prediction has been made (Spot's entire life time has been spent in the rain it would seem); apart from the fact that we have had extremely wet summers for ages now sooner or later they are bound to get it right by chance alone. Please stop predicting hot summers. And here is a cheerful thought from James Lovelock.

mass hatch

despite the long cold period, there has been a mass hatch of frog spawn in the last few days. These tadpoles are mostly still in clumps, I guess because they are feeding off the last remnants of the protein in their egg sacs.

catkin cascade

making up for lost time, the wood anenomes are coming out with the water dogs and daffodils

there at last

well, that didn't take long.

almost there

a bit more warmth and our native daffodils will be out, meanwhile Spot and Harriet are practising a concept quite new to them, cooperation.

even more browner things

Has Spring failed? Not quite. In fact when we looked back over Spot's private archives going back to 2000, several Springs have been like this, although never so dry. And if you are wondering how long a sparrow might stay on a feeder full of peanuts larger than the mesh, I know a man who has an answer.