A moment of pleasure

The early spring birdsong has really got going in South Buckinghamshire and it is enchanting. The garden is full of squirrels, magpies, jays, blackbirds, robins and many smaller birds. Primroses are blooming and catkins hang on the trees. The are many beech trees and beech woods around this part of the country and their long, furled leaves are beginning to show. A couple of camellia flowers are about to come out. It's all busy and glorious here, even in the dismal rain.

My daughter and I were watching a yellow wagtail in my garden the other day. I get robins blackbirds blue tits, last year it was a woodpecker and a tree creeper as well as the resident squirrel. I have a bird feeder outside my kitchen window. I find the small birds like dried mealworms, peanuts and birdseed. I've had trouble keeping them in water that isn't frozen these very cold days.

Snowdrops suddenly appearing and kind young men and women stopping to help people much older than themselves.

I watched my first outdoor wash of the year blow beautifully in the breeze a couple of days ago. Heartwarming sensation. I know it's only a pleasant glitch in the weather and there may be more inclement stuff ahead but it's a harbinger for me and.....we have kicked awful January into touch. I too have heard birds having a rant. Lovely. Not smart enough to know if blackbirds were involved.

BradfordLass72
The feel of flour in the bag resonates with me too. Baking is so relaxing and the magic happens in the oven.
The simple pleasures in life are so uplifting.
Many a time, whilst out walking, I have passed some greenery or a bush the smell of which transports me back to childhood holidays in Wales or fragrant lilac in my mum's garden.

My absolute favorite , the blackbird. Thank you for the tip about cooked rice CanOnlyTry - much appreciated.

Isn't it amazing how things are different, .... but the same in different countries. BradfordLass72 In my garden in the Adelaide foothills (South Australia), I have brilliantly coloured parrots, grey and pink cockatoos and white cockatoos with yellow combs (called sulphur crested cockatoos). I get immense pleasure from watching them and listening to kookaburras cackling in the gum trees near my house.

Nature is vital for our wellbeing. As soon as I step outside my front door my mood lifts. In my opinion, nature studies should be brought back into schools. At my infants school we had a nature table where we were encouraged to bring in things like conkers, acorns and anything nature-related. I loved it and I still love it. If you instill an awareness of nature into a child it is there for life. This is what I've tried to do with my grandson from when he was about 2 years old - now he's 12. I've always told him that he will notice things other people don't. Recently he told me he'd seen a Stag Beetle and last week he watched a Kestrel hovering. I'm so pleased. So many children have no idea about nature and it makes me so sad.

I love birds and feed them every day. As I have said on a previous thread, after 15 years in the same house I have noticed a slow decline in the number of birds coming to my garden and attribute some of this to the use of slug pellets,
which several neighbours use. Dying or dead slugs are full of this and when birds eat them, they die.

By the way don't put peanuts out during the nesting season, as baby birds fed peanuts choke to death on them. I always put out apple peelings and cores for our lovely blackbirds. Such a joy to hear birdsong!

It's flowers for me. At the bottom of my little garden the daffodils are showing yellow tips and should be out soon. The snowdrops have been out for a few weeks and the sun is shining here in South Notts.

BradfordLass72, you’re in New Zealand and that’s where I shall be in a few weeks’ time. I love the sound of the tui and the bell birds.

Granddaughter aged two and a half was banging away on a xylophone, and suddenly started singing a nursery rhyme, accompanying herself.

Suddenly seeing a tiny woodmouse climbing up the ivy to get to the birdtable, whilst I was on the phone to my sister last week. It's ages since we've been aware of them in our garden and gave me such joy.

We couldn't park where we normally do for the school run yesterday, but further along by a stream. OH was thrilled to spot a Dipper there - in the middle of a city!

And it's getting lighter in the evenings.

I'm really enjoying this thread. As someone further up has said it's such a nice change from so many negative ones. On my regular saunter round the garden this morning I noticed some rhubarb beginning to show. Lots of buds appearing too. Seems early t doesn't it?

Yes, it's getting lighter later and the birds are wonderful, aren't they. I've got snowdrops and some iris reticulata out. Marvellous.

I have just hung some washing out to dry, and a robin was singing his heart out. Then, when I turned round I noticed a bloom on my camellia - all good signs of spring.

We have three choral societies of sparrows practising in various hedges along our road.

Wisely, they have chosen the hedges round gardens that do not have resident cats.

In our garden, we have a small bird that sounds like a rusty door hinge. Anyone know what it is? The cat is ignoring it with all the dignity he can muster.

Yesterday, said cat hid behind a pile of brushwood in order to jump out and scare me (didn't work)then he jumped three feet into the air and landed in a pine tree.

So spring is definitely on its way.

Beautiful clear light and the wide open outlook from our house.
It amazes me all the time.

It's the coming back to life of things in Nature I love, Along with birdsong and lengthening daylight hours.
My magnolia blossom is beginning to fatten up, the daffodils are showing tight buds, the snowdrops and crocus are pushing up through the ground. These are such welcoming sights and simple pleasures to behold.

After a truly awful week of snow, sleet, rain high winds and very, very cold, today is lovely and I had a fabulous walk in the woods with the dogs.

In the garden the snowdrops are in flower, the quince bush is nearly there. I 've heard a blackbird, seen a Jay and for the first time a nuthatch on the bird table. The pond is full of very active toads who have just laid much toadspawn.

Last week The dogs and I nearly fell over a boar, thankfully it ran off, but it was a bit scary.

The swan family visit my boat to be fed most days. If the hatch is closed they knock. They make me smile and lift my spirits most definitely....

When the morning sun streams through the glass of the front door there are lots and lots of mini rainbows dotted about on the wooden floor and up the first two stairs for about an hour.

It looks very pretty and I have to walk through them to go upstairs for my shower. The GC love them. (I am sure things will fade, but the lovely little "house rainbows" as GS calls them, are a small price to pay.)

Sunshine, blue sky, snowdrops, early daffodils, birdsong, a cheeky little fox that slinks through the garden most evenings at dusk, so much pleasure.