Spring.....

……….each year in England, we see why Spring has inspired poets, storytellers and musicians through the ages. Just when you are beginning to think winter will never end, the colourful riot bursts forth.
We have 4 gardeners and they plant bulbs in their spare time, so our estate has spring bulbs popping up in every conceivable space and yesterday I picked armfuls of daffodils for our cottage. But the sides of the road are where it’s at! How did the incredible profusion of flowers come to be there? Bulbs are a bit big for birds to randomly sow……………
The Cotswolds are full of old quarries that have become lakes as the water table has risen. We walked around one this afternoon and were struck by the connectedness that Brits have with their animals and the indigenous fauna, including fish. Fishermen spend hours in this country fishing, but the thing that is hard to comprehend, coming from a ‘huntin…shootin…. fishin and eatin’ dynasty, is “what is the thing about spending hours fishing, just to throw it back immediately?” We got talking to one of these young guys (and there were at least three or four of them in their own possie around the lake) and he camps at the lake most weekends and through the week if he can. He catches a fish (perhaps the same one!)…., checks it for any injuries, applies ointment if needed, then throws it back! The kit enabling all this to take place is impressive and I daresay expensive……..methinks it could lead to some very decent sort of ‘fishermen tales’………xxxxx