Awakenings

Camelias may be blooming down below and roses being pruned while the dunnocks have been behaving shamelessly for a couple of weeks. And this morning sleeping with a window wide open I could hear a distant blackbird across the rooftops at 5 am; the large full moon may have been a stimulus.

Up here signs of spring are less easy to find but do exist. Many of our native trees take a cautious approach.

Oak may still carry some of last year's leaves but small robust buds can be found.

Bilberry is looking more perky now.

Other trees such as rowan may be so covered in lichens and mosses that buds are all but invisible.

In fact for parts of Blacka the lichens and mosses remain the star performers, making the best of the last weeks before foliage and the blossoms take over. There are fantasy worlds ....

.... and jewellery displays.

The upright trunks have more restrained decorative effects.

Meanwhile more bird song is heard each day. The curlew, that summer time lover of exploited farmland occasionally calls overhead gifting some phrases to the song thrush in the woods.