Spring forward

I seem to spend an increasing amount of time in my car, driving from pillar to post (desperately environmentally unfriendly I realise, but very friendly as far as my clients are concerned). Despite this, one of the real pleasures at this time of year, and I know I have mentioned it before, is the arrival of spring. I remember years ago when I first came and lived in Hampshire a friend mentioned having a picnic in the woods on May Bank Holiday surrounded by bluebells. That was about 1996. Since then I have seen the bluebells arrive earlier and earlier, but finally this year I think they would have enjoyed repeating the experience. We have a number of bluebell woods in this area; there is nothing to beat the sight of the sky being reflected at ground level. It is almost Dali-like in its surprise. Topping the rise of a hill and seeing the sky below you only to realise that they are not trees floating unanchored in the clouds but sheets of bluebells interspersed by blooms of wild garlic.

In addition to the bluebells frequenting our woods, I cannot help but notice how many cowslips we now have; both on the banks of the motorways (where they outnumber the primroses) and in some of the chalk land around us. Near the Sixpenny Handley roundabout, where there is some intermittently grazed pasture, the fields have literally been covered with them. As a child (a very very long time ago) I remember the excitement of finding them peeking out of long grass beside a track; even then they were uncommon. Now they are even prepared to seed themselves in my vegetable garden!

Hedges

I have been driving a lot around Devon and Somerset over the last few weeks, and it never ceases to amaze me the difference in the skill of those hedge cutting the sides of our roads. Sometimes there is a real artist at work; the hedges are cut cleanly, the trees left alone and the mess is minimal. You can see the care and attention to the plethora of species that comprise a good English hedge. Others are positively barbaric and I wonder if the blades of the cutters are ever sharpened, if they even know or care about the difference between a hedge and a tree? Branches and trunks are skinned, half cut off and shredded and the whole is a complete and hopeless mess with blackthorn and gelder rose strewn all over the road. I wonder if they have a contra deal with the local tyre fitters. How many times have I lost a tyre to the sharp point of a blackthorn? But there is one overriding observation – spring is definitely round the corner.