Woodpeckers in her Easter bonnet

We had an early start today, Easter Sunday. We had to cram in a quick hunt for Easter eggs combined with a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. The reason was that we had a rendezvous at 10am with Sarah Horrigan and her two children, Maddy and Felix, as they were in the area visiting Sarah's mum for the weekend.

It was lovely to see them, although it was very cold high up on Selsley Common where the wind was quite strong under the very grey clouds. We hoped to play a bit of frisbee once again, particularly with Felix, but unfortunately he got a knock on his nose which understandably put him off. So we decided to carry on walking with Woodpeckers and I chatting to Sarah, whilst the kids ran around on the open grassland that was covered with beautiful flowering cowslips (and rare orchids at the right season).

I pointed out the singing of the skylarks high above us and explained about how they fly and sing, and then come back to earth to feed in the long grass. Soon after, several skylarks appeared and we could all watch the whole process and even get near to a couple of them on the ground.

The cold wind pushed us towards the sheltered part of the common at Penn Wood on the top of the steep Cotswold escarpment. A short walk through the woods ended with a big 'fight' between us all when the kids discovered heaps of last years beech leaves, which we proceeded to throw all over each other. A walk through the old quarry gave the children allowed the children to run about and explore, building cairns out of large old stones, and then finding fossils and daggers of stone. But then we had to head back to the cars and to say our goodbyes.

Sarah was one of the first blippers who I corresponded with and she advised me on buying a better camera and gave me advice and tips about photography way back in 2010. Since then our worlds have evolved in our separate ways and Woodpeckers has joined us as a blipper. It was great fun to all meet up again and it is one of the best parts of blipping when you can share real time, as well as these digital moments. I may show a few of the other pictures I took once I have checked that is ok with Sarah. I managed at the end of our walk to photograph a skylark at close quarters as it was taking off from the grass after Maddy had pointed it out to me. I've promised to send a copy to Maddy.

But my Blip today is of Woodpeckers in all her glory, fresh faced with a tan from her short holiday in Crete. She needed this bonnet to keep her head warm, and now we are home, I have lit a fire and we have just had the first slice of the Simnel cake she baked yesterday evening. I think it will be an afternoon spent lazing in front of the fire, watching old movies and starting a new jigsaw. I may even squeeze in a snooze as well.

I have just noticed that Woodpeckers has now blipped a shot from our walk of Maddy andFelix!