Paying Attention to Spring

‘I am going to try to pay attention to the Spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen’. – Anne Lamott (an American novelist and non-fiction writer).

It only feels like yesterday when I was writing a blog about my favourite month of the year – September. And now it’s May, and I’m writing a blog about my favourite season in the year – Spring.

Spring has been late coming this year. It is only now that I finally feel like it is really getting under way, despite the fact that the 1st May was the official start to the Summer!

Now, finally, the trees are beginning to grow their summer foliage, the buds are full of promise at the tips of branches, before erupting into fragile, delicate leaves, light green and vivid. The grass is finally taking on a darker green hue, signifying the end of the winter season and the start of new growth. Sprinkles of colour are appearing here and there, where daisies, dandelions, buttercups and rosettes of pink and yellow primroses are poking through.

Over the bank holiday weekend, for the first time, the sky has been a deep, unapologetic blue with wisps of cloud floating high up in the atmosphere. It’s been warm – really warm – today my thermometer in the car on the way home from work crept up to 21 degrees. On Sunday, I noticed that the swallows have come back after their winter in Africa.

We bask in the life-giving sunshine after months of darkness and cold. The beer gardens ring with loud laughter and chat, fuelled by ice-cold cider. At the merest hint of warmth we strip down to our flip-flops, shorts and t-shirts and embrace the light, shading our eyes behind dark glasses and offering our pale skin to be browned (or in my case, pinked).

It is safe to say that Spring and the slow march towards Summer, with long, drawn-out days, BBQs and – fingers crossed – some sunshine, is my favourite part of the year. The days when sitting in an office feels like a waste, and the blue sky teases you,

calling and beckoning you outside. Everyone is more sociable in the sunshine. And so now, forgive me if I stop being so anti-social, and go out and enjoy this beautiful weather whilst it lasts!

All photos were taken at Batford Arboretum on Saturday 4th May. Trees are my new favourite thing to photograph! It was a beautiful sunny day and so many interesting things to take pictures of – I spent most of the first two hours wandering about alone without my family because they got bored of waiting for me whilst I was taking photos!