The coming of Spring

I chose a good day to work at home this week. It was another beautiful day, when Gus and I saw the sun rise and set from the top of the Knott, with a full day's work in between. The view is across the Kent estuary, the low hill behind Kent's Bank and beyond that the Furness peninsula. It was a particularly colourful sunset, with an intense horizon glow and a flush of pink clouds across the western sky that lasted long after the sun disappeared.

Gus has now been with us for two months. There isn't a trace of the nervous animal who was shaking and wouldn't get out of the car when he arrived in Arnside for his pre-Christmas visit. He is a joy to be with. As I sat on the grass watching the sunset unfold, he was leaning against me, happy to share his warmth and company.

We listened to the song thrushes and robins singing. Spring is just round the corner - within the next 10 days or so, the first wheatears will be arriving back from Africa. Within the next three weeks, there will be sand martins flying over the lagoons of Leighton Moss. This is the time of year to savour every moment, to stop and look at every new flower opening, to watch the buds swelling on the trees and shrubs. Spring unfolds so quickly, blink and you miss something precious, and it is gone for another year.