As the days start to lengthen and the sun rises higher in the sky giving off its welcome warmth it is heartening to see nature coming into her own again. Bulbs are pushing up through the earth, some already with the glorious golden flowers of daffodils and the mixed colours of the early hyacinths not far behind. Hellebores, those hardy perennial plants of late winter, are filling odd corners of the garden and the white, yellow and pink of primroses and the more vibrant colours of polyanthus have replaced the early snowdrops and aconites for another year.

Many birds have found their partners for this year and have started nest building. Collared doves and wood pigeons can be seen collecting twigs and even small sticks to make their precarious platforms (one could hardly call them nests) whilst blackbirds have been gathering muddy waste to stabilise their nests and make a safe place to lay their eggs.

The pair of robins that come to the feeders have built a nest somewhere close by having seen off the second pair that were here during the colder weather of the winter months. Goldfinches, great tits, blue tits, chaffinches, dunnocks and the odd great spotted woodpecker are all around and our resident sparrow has been seen taking nesting material into the hole in the wall by the back door. Our biggest delight this year is that we have been visited by siskins who seem to love the sunflower seeds that have been put out. Three or four of these colourful little birds come regularly although we did have a congregation of eight of them all together on the feeders earlier in the month.

Following the rather wet winter the lawn is looking quite lush and growing apace, it will not be long before we hear the steady sound of grass being cut on a regular basis everywhere. This year the cyclamen has spread its leaves into the grass which poses a problem – do we dig up and replant elsewhere or just leave them and hope they don’t get mown down later in the year.

Enjoy the changing seasons of your gardens and be grateful that we have these marvellous spaces to revive our senses and renew our love of nature.