April in pictures

bluebell wood

in the garden

sun through leaves

'bridal wreath'

lamb in grass

tadpoles in pond - still going strong!

It's been a while since I posted photos for the sake of it...there are lots more but compressing and watermarking takes time...here's a taster.

light

The Lord is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear?

Psalm 27:1

avocet attack!

Avocets: beautiful, elegant...and a tiny bit temperamental, as we saw last week...
(images are heavily cropped due to only having standard lens, thus low resolution - but love the content!)

Watch him coming...

Moorhens aren't exempt...

Although it's definitely the ducks he's really after - her expression says it all:

Woomph! Good grief!

"I'm the King of the Scrape"

a moment of colour

radiant

Look to him, and be radiant;

so your faces will never be ashamed.

Psalm 34:5

purple

in bloom this week

***

***

Breathe in spring...

pictures of March

Some photos taken during the past month, which have not previously been posted. Click on the 'photos' label to see older posts containing pictures.

beyond

the fence

hillside

shining through

trees

funky fungi

from below

magnolia blossom


"kiss me"
(anenome de caen in bud)

Was cleaning out rabbit hutch this morning, quite a time consuming task now Charlie has such a large hutch, and was very aware of being quietly observed. Well, not so quietly at all in fact. The blue tits scolding from the bushes, great tits hollering from the roof, and the goldfinches flying round and round, landing in the tree, considering me, and then flying back and forth again. So delightful to have them as regulars - something that has happened just in the past month, since the new Niger feeder was introduced. Two long tailed tits also passed through. Everything pairing up. Great tits are gathering nest materials...

Today: 4/10, medium - high

spring Sunday

According to my Dairy Diary (which my mum gets from the milkman each year!), spring officially starts on Friday (20th). But it's already here in our garden:




Thought I would share some of the photos I took in the garden during the week:


Chionodoxa flowering happily

Crocus peeping out the side of the strawberry pot (which I've never used for strawberries!)
First aubretia of the year to open out its little petals

and of course, the golden daffodil glowing in the sunshine

Am going to the evening service today as we had a church quiz last night and I don't cope well with an evening event followed by an event next morning. Spent most of yesterday afternoon agonising over whether to go or not. Was rather low yesterday (thanks for the encouraging comments on my last post, guys - much appreciated) and very tired, but in the end I did go. Was the right thing to do - despite physical exhaustion, I needed somewhere to go and be instead of being left at home feeling as I was.

Our team actually won. I'm not great at general knowledge and completely phased out during the sports section (miraculously, I did know one) and concentrated on the dingbats we'd been given. (Did get rather over-excited during the movie quotes, however!) Andy is very good at retaining facts and accessing them quickly. I learn things well but if I don't use the knowledge enough, it slips away.

Talking of facts, I'll try and post the answers to true or false? tomorrow or Tuesday. In the meantime, you can still join in!

In this stretch of Lent before Easter, I hope to post some more serious thoughts I've been having at this time. I should get a wriggle on; it's less than a month away...

Have a blessed Sunday.

"...the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness." ~ Psalm 18:28

Today: 4/10, medium

the springtime effect

There's something about opening your eyes in the morning and knowing from the colour of your world that the sun is out. It was a wet and windy night, so the sunlight feels even more precious. It lights me up on the inside, not just the outside. I find it soothes my weariness and any anxieties, causing a certain relaxation to flood through me; even as I go about my day working on this and that, I feel a kind of release.

The snowdrops are going over now. February is over and March has arrived! I made it through winter and here comes spring! The daffodils are budding in the front garden, brimming with promise, and the crocuses stretch gleefully towards the sun (like me!)

I was rather pleased with the crocus picture I posted on Monday; apart from the watermark and compressing the file size what you see is what was taken, the same with the images in this post - no later changes or tweaking to the images. I love the sight of these tiny flowers peppering the dull ground with the vibrant colour of hope; they awaken the tiny flowers of hope in my heart's garden, inspiring me to thankfulness and expectation of joy.

Mmm mmm (said appreciatively). Oh yes, spring is beginning and however I physically feel, my heart always rises to meet it...

Today: 4/10, medium

concession

there is so much in me -
but someone has stolen
the access codes,
or perhaps
I have simply forgotten them,
or never knew them at all.

and every now and then

a breath of understanding,

a moment of clarity

on finding the right sequence -

and my heart concedes

to open into words.

nature's tears

~*~

~*~

~*~

~*~

My personal favourite is the last one.

Today: 4/10, medium

shafts of light

To me, it seems, this is what hope looks like. Am struggling a little with feeling so grotty all the time; trying to be content with my circumstances and sometimes succeeding...sometimes, not. It becomes difficult, after such a long time, to imagine things will get better - that I will get better. I don't mean that in a self-pitying way but simply that, after struggling with this for over half my life, it naturally becomes harder to imagine ever being without it. I would be happy with improvement, not cure. I would be happy to be in a 'good patch' not a bad one. Stamp this picture on my heart and let it grow...to see it in the distance would be enough.

Today: 3/10, high

melting snow

Well, the snow is gone now from my neck of the woods, but finally here are some photographs for you. I wasn't able to get out and capture glorious vistas as I'm sure many did, but enjoyed some close up camera moments as the sun bore down and the snow slowly melted. This gave more interest as contrasts were highlighted between the snow and other objects / plants.


grass

aglow

emerging

dormant

milk bottles

melting snow

Thank goodness I can compress the files...the A350 photos are huge compared to those of our old digital camera. It would take forever otherwise!!