We had a brilliant Easter holiday in North Carolina, where we saw some amazing wildlife and spent a lot of time just playing on the beach. It was such a treat to discover some new colourful characters and enjoy the sunshine.
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| Blue jay |
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| Northern cardinal |
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| Green anole |
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| Playing on the beach |
It was still nice to get home and we found so much had changed while we were away. The hedgerows had turned green and the trees had started to uncurl their leaves. In the back garden, our huge apple tree was covered in frilly white blossom, the honeysuckle was about to flower and the weeds had started to take over!
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| Apple blossom |
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| Honeysuckle |
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| Goldfinches enjoying the feeder in the apple tree |
After two weeks away, I was keen to take a walk around some of my regular haunts. Grangelands was beautiful in the sunshine and it felt like it had started to wake up after the long winter (and at last all the mud had dried up!) . This is such as exciting time, and makes me look forward to summer walks through flower-rich grassland, surrounded by orchids and butterflies.
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| The view from Grangelands, looking up at Pulpit Hill |
The first spotty leaves were just poking through the short grass. It won't be long now until the reserve will be covered in common spotted orchids and fragrant orchids!
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| Spotty leaves of the common spotted orchid, just starting to appear |
It's bluebell time, so I headed up the road to Brush Hill. You'd be hard pressed to find anywhere more special than a bluebell wood at this time of year!
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| There were a few white bluebells in the sea of blue |
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| Cowslips were flowering out on the chalk slope |
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| Even the dog seemed mildly impressed by the bluebells |
From blue jays to bluebells ... we live in a pretty blue-tiful world!
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