Burgeoning Spring

IMG_4866Blustery showers, radiant sunshine, raging clouds and nodding ‘daffs’- it must be April again!

I was feeling a little sorry for the horses who live in a field, near to my home.  The ground has never fully dried out from persistent rain earlier in the year, and plodging seems to be the order of the day.  Not that they appear to mind, and there’s plenty of ‘dry’ field for them, if they decline to paddle.  I stopped to watch for a while. The grass must have been extra juicy for it’s drowning, because they were quite single-minded in their munching.  Excepting for one, very determined, guy.  I thought he was trying to eat the fence post, in a form of protest.  As I watched, it dawned on me that he was actually trying to dislodge it, rocking it back and forth with his teeth. Crafty fellow!  A getaway in the making.

While Jude potters around in her new found garden, ‘getting a little closer’ to new growth, I’ve been out poking in a few hedgerows.  My finds… a woodland creature, sculpted smooth by nature’s hand…  tiny buds of blossom, sparkling on bare branches… catkins aplenty.

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I’d wandered into Summerhill Country Park.  It being school holidays there are youngsters burning up energy on the BMX track. They wave at me and ask if I’ll take their photos.  I smile, and oblige.  Why not?

Those clouds are creeping up on me again, and it’s time to head for home.  In a gully I spot what I take to be wild anemones.  Bright yellow in colour, I promised to ‘ping’ Tish if they crept into a post.  There’s a lot of nature sharing going on these days.

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I don’t expect Jude will mind them either.  And she’ll know if anemones can be yellow as well as white, and blue.

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Funny, they look just like buttercups when I view them up close, but they were twice as big.  I’ll never make a botanist.  Do join Jude in her Garden Challenge.  This month the theme is Macro.

127 comments

  2. It is a Lesser Celandine flower (the yellow one) I think the first image has cyclamen leaves around it. I have a few in my ‘lawn’ – more like a wild meadow! They are of the same family as the buttercup (Ranunculus) and flower in March and April. I love your new word – plodging! I think I shall be doing a lot of that here, there seems to be an inordinate amount of MUD! And I like your catkins too – I took a photo of my corkscrew hazel catkins yesterday. I need to start my Cornwall blog and get posting 😀

    Thanks for joining in with the challenge Jo 🙂 I hope the sun is shining on you today. Glorious here, but VERY windy!

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    1. Wild meadows are fashionable, chuck! Maybe you can charge an admission fee? The sun is beaming again now but I’ve been rained on twice today. We’d better get some wellies, I think. 🙂 I imagine blogging seems like an interruption to the Good Life at the minute?

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      1. No blogging is an interruption to chores at the moment. The Good Life begins as soon as I feel comfortable (staring out the window at the view is rather a distraction too, which is why it is taking me so long…. 😉 )

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      4. No pressure! I’m only gone 9 days. 🙂 But then it’s Poland. I shouldn’t be here. I should be polishing my non existent language skills. 🙂

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      6. Just birthdays and my Dad’s ‘last’ visit to Poland- so he says. 🙂 We’ve not organised anything yet. I think Meg is flu bound, but we’ll have to exchange mobile nos and see if we can fix something.

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      7. It must be very tiring for your Dad to make the journey. Maybe his relatives will make more visits to England, though I guess some of them are also elderly. Yes, poor Meg and the flu. Not nice.

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  7. Actually horses can swim, but I believe they need more water – and not all the time – an inspiring collection of captures – agree with Jill “Someone needs to give the horse a carrot”… 🙂

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    1. There’s a public footpath alongside their field, so I guess they’re used to people. I’m not very used to horses so I was a bit wary, but they were fascinating. 🙂

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  11. Fabulously fresh gallery Jo! Your munching, plodging horses are adorable 🙂 The botanists among your readers will know for sure, but the yellow flower might be a wood anemone.

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    1. I believe they are Lesser Celandines. Same family (Ranunculus) and you do get yellow wood anemones, but they only have 5 to 8 petals. Funnily enough they are also known as the buttercup anemone!

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  15. What a lovely post Jo and I know first hand how crafty horses can be. My daughter’s horse is not called Merlin for nothing. He’s quite magical in making things disappear, pulling rugs off himself and having a chew on the gate!

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  16. Amazing shots Jo! The horsies are just adorable and those blooms are gorgeous! The Wild Anemones are just gorgeous. Such bright, beautiful colours! Great for Jude’s challenge. 😀 ♥

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  17. Thank you for this makes me feel a little bit happier about returning home when I see Spring is returning.
    PS we’ll make a botanist of you yet!!

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  18. Plodging – that’s a great word. I must remember it. It looks like spring is definitely on the way. Here, we’re halfway through autumn and it’s still 30 degrees C. Perfect for our beach holiday this week!

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  19. Plodging – that’s a great word. I must remember that. It looks like spring is definitely on the way. Here, we’re halfway through autumn and it’s still 30 degrees C. Perfect for our holiday at the beach this week!

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      1. Usually when they start licking or chewing on poles they can’t stop. Same with when they start chewing a stone. They won’t eat the whole day only chew or lick. Have a lovely Thursday too(mine is already over) Enjoy your weekend too. 🙂

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