Early Spring...Early Autumn

Spring is officially here! The clocks sprang forward by an hour overnight...and tonight it will be light until 7pm. It's also been a beautiful, sunny few days. It makes such a difference to everyone's mood...people I pass in the street smile at me and everything seems brighter and more cheerful. It's been said before, I know, but I wonder whether the British would be less shy & standoffish - more outgoing if our weather was less gloomy?

My daily walks with Alice are a joy at this time of the year...it seems that something new and green appears every morning! She is constantly snuffling the air & ground for all the exciting new season's scents (exciting to a dog, that is!)

On Friday, we found this woodland shelter that someone had made...

there was a handy log to sit on in there...it looked quite cosy!

The gorse bushes are flowering now, with their coconut-fragranced yellow blooms..

The wild violets are just beginning to emerge on the hill too...cowslips won't be far behind!

On the other side of the world...Autumn is just beginning. And with it has come some raging weather...the worst flash floods in Esther's town for 100 years. She and the children battled home on Thursday through it...luckily they live on top of a hill. The Maroochy river burst its banks and caused a huge amount of damage to shops and homes. It's impossible for me to believe that when I left only 3 weeks ago, the road down to the sea looked like this...

 and on Thursday, it had turned into this...

There have been some freak weather conditions in other parts of the world,too, I know...causing disruption at best...death & destruction at worst. Mother Nature constantly reminds us not to take her for granted.

When I walk in the peaceful, green hills....bathed in the first warm sunshine of the new season...I feel very lucky to live here - where it's generally temperate and mild.

Especially when I happen upon a sight like this...

I hope that you've had a wonderful weekend.

xoxo