Spring

27th April 2012
Friday

It's been a week since the last snowfall and around three weeks since the beginning of the thaw.

Looking from my room, the only remaining snow are patches left at the edges of car parks by snowplows and the remnants that slid from the roof on the north side of the adjoining building. The once long mound reminiscent of the winter beach defences at Viking Bay in Broadstairs, has now dwindled, leaving the garden a sodden marsh. Walking on the ground is like stepping onto a sponge; little geysers of water spout up around my boots and the mud around my foot shifts like a lump of rubber. The kids are barred from this area until it dries up but children and mud and puddles are difficult to keep separated for long.

...

On a bike ride on Wednesday, I noticed most of the rivers and streams are now ice free but the deeper dykes that are still in shadow remain frozen.

More buds are appearing on the trees and green shoots are sprouting through the ground and the place is alive with birds.

The farmland in front of Chris and Tiina's house is easy to differentiate from a lake now as I had once thought it to be.


...

What I had presumed to be a kind of jay are in fact fieldfares attracted to the wet fields in search of bugs and my rooks, on closer inspection, are in fact jackdaws. Like a small crow with a dark grey waistcoat, jackdaws are easy to distinguish from rooks and the like due to their white eyes with black centres. I wasn't close enough before to see their eyes but I managed to creep up on a few grazing like cows in a field.

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The sunsets have been amazing and on clearer nights dusk continues for another two hours.












Two hours after sunset looking north, the sky near the horizon is lit up by the sun as it continues on its passage.










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A pheasant is pecking around in the tall dry weeds under my window as the sun attempts to peek through the clouds. It's around +10 but it's windy.

I have been looking at some maps and I'm hoping the weather is good this weekend so that I can take my bike out. Otherwise I shall check ExRx for their muscle and exercise chart, plan a weight training programme and pay a visit to the gym.