This has been the week when it really feels like spring has arrived, though I know that the warmest February since records began is not something to celebrate. I thought it was going to be all about birds and birdsong, as the week started with Skylarks singing their hearts out in the fields around Old Quarrington on my first longer run for a while. Their exuberant song always brings me such joy. So much so, that I chose Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending at the knock-off Desert Island Discs we ran with the University International Women’s Group this weekend. I was delighted and unsurprised to find that the lark is a symbol of hope and joy in many different cultures and that the قبرة (qubra) features in much Arabic poetry and music. It wasn’t just larks either; there were Long-tailed tits chattering in the Birch tree in our front garden, a Kingfisher and Goosanders on the river when I rowed and three Lapwing wheeling and diving in their acrobatic courtship displays in the fields between Bowburn and Shincliffe. Despite being a large arable field with no obvious attempts to encourage biodiversity, I often see groups of less common birds here, so there must be something good in the soil.

The squirrels in High Wood continue to amuse with their antics, rummaging through the leaf litter like bargain hunters in a sale, presumably on the lookout for nuts buried in the autumn. A sleepy bee paused for a rest on my yellow cycling jacket when I stopped at the traffic lights on my way home. The riverbanks are showing signs of spring too, with the wild garlic pushing up fresh green leaves and the triffid-like flowers of Butterbur emerging, like Coltsfoot, before its large leaves.

The first cherry blossom is out on our street, Blackthorn or Cherry Plum is flowering along the road to Guisborough and the Pussy willow catkins on the river banks have turned yellow as their anthers have emerged and are shedding clouds of yellow pollen – the hayfever season has arrived!

But the most exciting thing of all was the frogspawn which appeared overnight in our pond this week, a full month earlier than we found it last year – spring is very definitely in the air! I’ve just noticed in this photo that you can already see the eggs starting to divide in four.

I’ve just finished reading a heartbreaking short story called So Late in the Day, by Claire Keegan. I can’t recommend her beautiful writing enough. Small things like These is equally beautiful and has stayed with me long after the short time it took to read.
In the garden the first purple Crocuses have joined the Snowdrops and Winter Aconites brightening up the front ‘lawn’ and the Weeping Willlow at the end of the garden is a hazy green around the edges as the buds start to burst. I’ve tried to resurrect the small greenhouse in the allotment, which blew away in one of December’s storms, though it is now held together largely by duct tape so I’m not sure how long it will last!
Our culinary highlight was probably yesterday evenings Sea bass steamed with ginger – a delicate Chinese dish which went very well with braised Pak Choi.