Yesterday felt like the first real day of spring, so, to celebrate being gout-free, I had a walk around the Lyth Valley, trying to get some shots of the damson trees in blossom. I visited some old haunts, including the ford and clapper bridge over the River Winster and St Anthony’s Church at Cartmel Fell, with the sloping churchyard still carpeted with daffodils. In the woods around the church I saw and heard chiffchaffs and willow warblers; a woodpecker was drumming. Paths converge on the church, so walkers came and went - using the little church as an excuse to stop for a few minutes, to look at the old carved box-pews inside or sit on the bench outside and feel the unaccustomed warmth of the sun.
Though I didn’t get as many pix as I would have liked, it was good to be out and about in spring sunshine. Buzzards were wheeling overhead and magpies and jays were active at the woodland edges. The last bird I saw, before driving to Windermere in the evening, was a little egret, taking wing from one of the water-filled ditches in the Lyth Valley. The show of blossom should be even whiter and frothier in a day or two, so I’ll have another attempt to get some pix before I drive back over the Pennines a week today…
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