English Springtime.......................

I miss my home the most in the Springtime. The beautiful English lanes just budding into a perfect green, the scent of Bluebells in the air. To see them at a distance as one drives the country roads the brilliant blue of the sky echoes in the woodlands below, with that hint of green just awakening in the trees. Along the hedgerows Primroses and Daffodils bloom in perfect yellows. Mrs Wren will be nesting there in the ivy below and the Rabbits have babies in the undergrowth. In the fields are lambs frolicking as only they can. That is Spring time to me.


There is nothing on earth quite like the Bluebells. I see them in movies and it always fills my heart, children running through woodlands with the blue all around them, a bubbling stream maybe and the expectation of magic somehow, a fairy flitting among the branches watching the earthy children. It brings to mind that movie about the children that took the pictures of fairies that became such a sensation. How did they do it? was it fake? So many people were intrigued by a picture taken by a child. It seemed to be real and yet? I loved that movie. It was up there for me with the Secret Garden. I think I must watch both of those again.

There is nothing quite like the English hedgerow. So ancient and so wonderfully made. I have spoken often before about them. They give shelter to so many creatures, large and small and the wildflowers, the Dog Roses, Cow Parsley, Holly, Blackberries, so many things that as a child we would collect. Picking is no longer allowed, but still most of my generation have the memories and this generation are most likely too busy with cell phones and things electronic to want to wander through the lanes and footpaths like we did.

I have been saddened to see the way the Foxes have been treated in England, a country known for animal lovers to kill Foxes as vermin is unbelievable to me. They kill chickens, I understand that. Take care of your chickens then. If a Fox gets into your chickens it is your fault. The Fox is doing what Foxes do. You are responsible for the chickens and their safety. I would be angry too if my chickens were killed, but I would not blame the Fox.
It's the same here with Coyotes, they will kill baby animals, it's how they live. You are the caretaker. Get a dog to watch your animals then, that's what smart people do.
In the English hedgerows dwell any number of creatures. Badgers, Hedgehogs and a huge variety of birds.

Beautiful creatures that would most likely die out without that protection.

I feel so fortunate to have been raised where I was, in the countryside. I lived in Bedfordshire home to the Green Lanes and the Dunstable Downs close by. Ivinghoe Beacon and the Ashridge Estate. My childhood was spent wandering the fields and playing down on my friend Margaret's farm. A country girl I was and always will be.

My love of the outdoors and wild life, wild flowers, gardens and all animals have been a huge blessing to me. Being able to see these things and to have had the heart to appreciate them, I am forever grateful.
"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven—
All's right with the world!"

~Robert Browning, 'The Year's at the Spring.'