Spring green

So pleased to have Chris and Lizzy home today - they were in Colombo during yesterday's bombings, and their plane took off about half an hour before the pipe bomb was found at Colombo airport. All rather too close for comfort...But despite that appalling violence on their last day, they'd had a wonderful time in Sri Lanka, seen lots of wildlife and been made very welcome by the people. 

We had a delicious Easter lunch sitting outside on the patio, bathed in warm sunshine, though the temperature was rather cooler than those they'd recently been used to. After lunch I drove them home, as Lizzy had to prepare for work the next day, as well as thinking about a forthcoming interview for a new teaching post on Friday.

To wind down I went for an evening walk to the river, though I forgot how busy it would be on a warm bank holiday! I counted fifty-five fritillary flowers in the hay meadows (see extra), somewhat fewer than in recent years, and was quite cross to find a bunch that had been picked and discarded. 

I also heard the first reed warblers and cuckoo of the year, as well as a very loud burst of song form a Cetti's warbler. In the dusk, the white birch trunks really stood out against the vibrant green grass so characteristic of this stage of the year.