Oh March!….

                                                     Spring is coming, spring is coming
                                                       Birdies build your nests
                                                       Weave together straw and feather,
                                                       Doing each your best, doing each your best

                                                       Spring is coming, spring is coming,
                                                       Flowers everywhere
                                                       Daisies, Lilys, Daffodillies,
                                                       Spring is in the air, spring is in the air!

March has been full of surprises weather-wise here: just last week the world was shrouded in mist for days on end, followed by a couple of the most glorious warm sunny days – the kind that makes your heart sore with the promise of the summer days ahead  – then the last few days it turned cold again, with wind and rain. I suppose this mixed bag is typical March weather in the UK, but it feels oh so unpredictable!

Today on the Spring Equinox, it is a lovely crisp sunny day – Hurrah! 

Winter is on the wane and spring is most definitely marching in at quite a pace. It always seems to take me by surprise, when spring finally makes an entrance after a long quiet winter in nature: at first there are just a few snowdrops dotted around, heralding the season ahead, but all of a sudden March brings crowds of daffodils, croci, violets, primroses and clouds of billowy white hawthorn blossom. And this is just the beginning…

The birds are a-twittering and chirruping in the hedges and treetops and life is reaffirmed all around us in nature. On my morning walk today, I delighted in all these wondrous gifts of the season. I usually listen to music on my walk, but I couldn’t resist the bird song – so sweet and enticing; all the different mating calls and birds flitting from branch to branch with greenery and twigs in their beaks as they prepare their nests. It was a privilege to watch it all going on around me.

There is a wonderful vibrant feeling to this season as everything awakens at once from a long winter slumber and the bright green of new leaf shoots is such a pleasing sight.

I finally packed away my winter books and nature table decorations a week ago, to be stored carefully in a plastic box in the eves until winter returns. I have hung our wool fairies in spring colours from the mobile above our dining table and have changed the cloth on the dining table so everything feels fresh and bright.

The nature table has a light green cloth on it and there are felt daffodils , croci and snowdrop ‘children’ dotted around. I am planning to make some little felt primroses too as wild primroses are one of my favourite sights in spring. We also have some animals  on the nature table (we like the Schleich animal range)  –  some chickens, a sheep, a fox and a deer as well a chicken and a couple of rabbits that I needle felted some years ago. I will add their young on Easter Sunday and the Easter hare of course 🙂

I made a few birds out of plasticine to sit in the branches of the trees,

and sat a nesting bird amongst some pussy willow. I absolutely love pussy willow, so I treated us to some this year; it makes me smile and it is so soft and silky to touch.

Yesterday , I still had Mrs Thaw (a character found in the book Ollie’s Ski Trip)  on the nature table, sweeping away the remains of the winter. But spring is here so she had to say her farewells.

Here is Mother Earth with the root children, busy sewing their clothes for their appearance today. 🙂

My eldest had one of the root children cleaning a bee on her nature table.So sweet.

The inspiration for this, as many of you will know is the wonderful Story of the Root Children by Sibylle von Olfers.

And today, Mother Earth and the root children have emerged in all their finery to officially welcome the spring in.

 

Happy First Day of Spring to you all!