I talk to the trees...

I do talk to the trees. Actually, sometimes I even sing to the trees. My eldest sister and I used to go to Westonbirt Arboretum in the Winter every year - just the two of us. We would go off-path, hug trees and sing Simon and Garfunkel songs (very badly indeed). I guess our lives have become busier and we are more likely now to mooch from tea shop to tea shop for an hour or two, rather than walk and sing in the trees all day. We need to restart the tradition.

So today I went to Westonbirt with Mark and his parents. A wonderfully sunny day, there were too many people for me to get away with singing or tree-hugging, but it was lovely feeling the dappled sun on our faces, spotting the buds so full of promise, listening to the birds and...

...enjoying a grand Sunday lunch of sausage and chips!

sausage and chips for lunch

I love seeing the early Spring bulbs fighting their way through the drifts of leaves that fell in the Autumn; it feels like a triumph over adversity.

snowdrops and Autumn leaves

fair maids of February

I love the way the low Winter sun catches the bark of the trees.

cedar tree bark

I love the way the sun catches the vivid yellow petals of the witch hazel - like a Winter fiesta!

witch hazel pom-poms

I love the way carrying (and using) a camera allows me to distance myself from the rest of the world; watching from a distance is so calming.

walking a few paces behind 

I love catching sight of little splashes of colour as the natural world starts to wake up from Winter.

signs of life

I think this will be Mark and me one day. An elderly couple sitting companionably on a park bench, watching the world go by.

sat on their park bench like bookends