soapdragon Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Forget the first cuckoo heralding spring.....I've just seen the first Postie of the year wearing shorts! Don't think I'll write to The Times, though! Not sure about summer but I know it's autumn when the leaves just start to turn orange....winter is the first frost. What are seasons for others? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Posties only wear shorts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 Ours wear what look suspiciously like saloppets (sp!) when its really cold! Hence the sight of a bare legged Postie causing comment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 Blimey! Ours literally wear shorts no matter what - I think it’s some sort of badge something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 But, seasonal things for me - the Robin changing between winter and summer song (even though he starts to sing his winter song in late August it’s a sign that the end is nigh) - my mum and I always text each other for the first time we hear it. Spring - first daffodils (even though that tends to be in December - likewise snowdrops), then bluebells. Leaves coming out on trees that really bright green colour. Beautiful hedgerows. Cutting the grass for the first time. Chiff-chaffs. Summer - Swallows and then swifts arriving - swifts screaming overhead - ultimate sound of summer. Autumn - Swifts leaving (although really this is mid summer). Swallows leaving. Winter - trees without leaves What a lovely exercise - Thankyou soapdragon- and its made me all excited about spring 😊🌱 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted March 21, 2019 Author Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) Forgot about lambs! Saw the first ones yesterday. We have several fields of sheep around the edges of the village and those little balls of cotton wool bouncing around always make me smile. I also saw a hare loping over one of the fields this afternoon when collecting ES from his after school badminton club - that, quite literally, gave me goosebumps. Edited March 21, 2019 by soapdragon dimwittedness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia W Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 (edited) We have drifts of wild violets now in the garden. They, and daffodils and primroses, are my harbingers of Spring. I think it’s because one of my first memories from school is making a basket of primroses and violets to take home to my Mum when I was about 7. I just loved the juxtaposition of the deep purple and delicate yellows. Oh, and I asked our postie why he wears shorts all year round. He says it’s because he hates wet trousers flapping round his legs! Edited March 21, 2019 by Patricia W Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Dogmother Posted March 21, 2019 Share Posted March 21, 2019 20 minutes ago, Patricia W said: Oh, and I asked our postie why he wears shorts all year round. He says it’s because he hates wet trousers flapping round his legs! Ours say the same :) I love the seasonal changes too - swallows, swifts coming and going. The hedgehog bimbling around, the scent of the soil, crayfish in summer streams. We've had lambs round here for a while now, but passed a field today with some real tinies in it. I spend a lot of time outdoors, so notice the markers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rachel84 Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 We have a very large, old Magnolia tree in the garden which is almost out in bloom - my favourite part of Spring. Plus all the girls are now laying! Also lots of lambs around here as well. We also have geese that fly over our house morning and evening from Spring onwards and they honk all the way! I just love knowing the days are getting longer and the end of the damp dreary days is getting nearer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted March 24, 2019 Author Share Posted March 24, 2019 Now it is spring! Got two loads of bedding washed, out on the line, dry and back on the beds (smelling wonderfully fresh) today. Ahhhhhh it will be lovely to snuggle under line fresh bedding tonight! The gentle hum of lawn mowers accompanied me on my walk round the village this afternoon too. Just waiting on seeing the first ducklings on the brook that runs through the village. Like the lambs, they seem late this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsylabrador Posted March 24, 2019 Share Posted March 24, 2019 It's the smell of the wind that does it for me. Each season has it's own particular smell. Not always nice later in the day. A hot day at home can smell a bit fumey. But there's always that one day when you say "oh, it smells like...... today". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 (edited) To me summer is coming the day after winter solstice. Even if the days stay the same length for a little longer while it adjusts. Then the light is a little longer and the chickens go to bed later and later. Pheasants come close within 3 ft while they wait for the bird feeders to be stocked up and they wait for the spillages as they feel the winter hunger. I love the clear frosty days and the freshness of the air. Expectancy of snow in late winter/spring. Snowdrops are a happy sight. Then how happy when I see the butterflies come out of hibernation along with the bees. Primroses next and then bluebells, summer is really coming then. Fieldfares have disappeared now but chiffchaffs have finally reached me. Never did in the last house and they got so close to the edge of the village. Here they are in the ash trees! I've heard lapwings and seen them flying across but they are in a field behind us. Skylark and now skylarks are in the air. Frogs and tadpoles, newts swishing tails and rippling back fin/crests. Waterboatmen have resurfaced. Flowers and leaves appearing on the trees, plum blossom already and the blackthorn is appearing. Loads of bees and hoverflies! Lots of hard work in the veg beds. Lambs started before new year here, but there are lots of bouncing baaing woolly bundles in the field below us. Spring is my favourite. Summer = too hot to breathe and storms and trying to find somewhere cool in the hottest part of the day. Now it means Grockles and Hems season about to start gradually building up to the school holidays before it all subsides again but lots more work as harvesting begins. Everywhere starts looking very green and as summer goes on the green deepens - hopefully not parched brown! Apples and juicing. Watching the house martins disappear for the winter and getting the last insects in the air before they fly away. Walnuts forming and watching those dear little squirrels nick the lot. Then autumn winds blowing the leaves and swirling them in the air for children to catch and make a wish! Jumpers back on and socks as the temperature drops a little. End of autumn going into winter starts getting wetter in the new year. And I'm waffling so I'd better stop! Edited March 31, 2019 by Valkyrie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 I've just notice Devon violets out in the garden in the shade of our birdbath. Made ES mow round them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 I needz violets! Haven't seen any here. We do have snakes head fritillaries and I think dogs tooth violets (keep forgetting to look though)! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patricia W Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 I can’t get fritillary established even though it is Oxfordshire’s official flower, if anyone knows the trick let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted April 2, 2019 Author Share Posted April 2, 2019 I have a very few which I planted years ago but they have never increased, as other bulbs have done. Maybe it's the soil!? Have you been to the fritillary meadow in Oxford, PW? Every year I mean to go but never get round to it - like SOOOOOO many things!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsylabrador Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Is this a violet because if so I have one growing up through the patio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted April 2, 2019 Author Share Posted April 2, 2019 I'm no Titchmarsh but I think not? Doesn't look like our Devon violets but very pretty and such a wonderful blue - really vibrant! I'm sure that someone much more cleverer then me will know exactly what it is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Valkyrie - that was a truly lovely post; I so get how in tune you are with Nature, and that will be why you have moved to Somerset/Devon and taken on 4 acres! Thank you. Although I do need to ask, what is a Hem? I don't think that is a violet, PL, its too blue, it looks like some sort of primula although instinctively that doesn't feel right either. Here in Portugal I had a dwarf violet self seed last year, but far more excitingly, in Normandy a few weeks ago, not only were the purple violets in bloom, they also had white ones, which I had never seen before. They are a delicate and wondrous flower I think. I must also go and smell the wind; nothing I have ever thought to do. About fritilleries - I don't know much about them, but the best ones I have seen are in Oxfordshire, grown in land next to the Thames. So, I assume you need a lot of moisture, plus whatever Oxfordshire soil is made up of! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 I have one fritillary in a half barrel full of other bulbs that comes up and has one flower every year. I love it and I’ve planted loads of others but had nothing to show from them. PL I’m not sure what that is but it’s definitely not a violet. Do you have any more pics? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Er - politely Grockles and Hems are tourists. Hems is short for pains in the derriere! They are beginning to arrive. Several caravans and big camper vans on the A303 today as I was visiting my mum. Thankfully this time I come from the other side and miss Stonehenge! But then it helped to know the back doubles over the Plain. And aww shucks Daphne - you are too kind! The best field (and only field) was a super water meadow that they ran cows in after the fritillaries had finished flowering and had dried. If I remember rightly it was near the Wellington Estate near Reading. Beautiful sight! I think it might be aubretia. Bit late here although there are huge clumps. Down the bottom of the hill they are rambling all over the walls - as is my mum's. We have one flower so far. Certainly an awesome blue! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Just thinking - I haven't seen any brimstone butterflies yet. When I do, that's the sign that summer is here or just around the corner. Ties in with the old saying don't cast your clout till May is out - which either means the month or the hawthorn but both are about the same time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 I've never heard of a Hem, although one of my oldest friends is a Devonian, and she has always talked about grockles. The A303 can be a right pain can't it, although not as bad as in the good old days, when you had to get up at 4am to avoid Honiton or some such when going on hols. And I don't think I will ever tire of seeing Stonehenge and travelling across Salisbury Plain which I love. PL - can you get a photo of the leaf, I don't like to be defeated by something I'm sure we can ID between us! We have had a super dry and warm March, which is not really good news as far as fire hazards are concerned, but we already have lots of butterflies (can't 100% recall seeing a brimstone, but have had swallowtails) and swifts dipping down to drink water. In the garden I have jasmine, lilac, and citrus trees all just in bloom with very heady scent, plus the first roses, irises, hundreds of calendula and in your face screaming purple mesembryanthemum. I saw a bit of GWorld last week and Monty's garden was all the cool greens and unfurling leaves and frothy spring blooms and it really brought home the difference, I feel I am on to summer flowers already, but that is what happens here. Everything tries to get its blossoming done quickly before the real heat comes and kills off lots of top growth. So Spring is supercharged and quick, Summer goes on in a very lazy way for a long time, autumn is usually glorious, and winter is pants because its often wet which brings the temperature down, with too much low cloud and general grey, although when we do have a good day its fantastic. Consequently my experience of the seasons has changed radically and although I used to like Spring best with its promise of new life everywhere, now I am a big fan of Autumn as we have blue skies, warmth, plenty of harvest and not much of the dreariness I associate with November; a month which is summed up for me by the image of a dripping bare branch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soapdragon Posted April 3, 2019 Author Share Posted April 3, 2019 Oh I do like the 'Hems' definition for tourists - made I laugh! OH family are from just outside Dartmouth and so I have heard about grockles (even been one myself!). I told OH about Hems = tourists as they are a pain in the bottom about half an hour ago.....he still hasn't got it! Dense fog here this morning but burned off to lovely sunshine although it's just starting to cloud over and it's cold! Have just noticed a few spots of rain on the window too - one of those days when we get every type of weather throughout the day (apart from WARM sun ) Still, boys both break up at 1.00pm on Friday and I CAN'T WAIT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patsylabrador Posted April 3, 2019 Share Posted April 3, 2019 (edited) I grew up surrounded by Stonehenge, Avebury, Silbury Hill, the longbarrow I can't remember the name of, fields of random boulders. I loved it all and although I moved to London and love London to bits that bit of our country is still magical to me. Prehistory is still my absolute favourite. I was lucky because when I was little we could still explore all the sites and I remember sitting on top of Silbury Hill and burrowing into the long barrow. We used to clamber over the stones in Stonehenge. I know now that was wrong but I'm selfishly glad I could. I remember standing in one of the burial cells in the longbarrow and letting it all flow over me. I really grew to appreciate my surroundings. It wasn't wasted. I was very lucky I think. I guess everyone is the same about tourists. I love London more when there are less visitors and it's what passes for quiet 😂 This is the little plant. A bit faded now. Can you see the leaves OK? Edited April 3, 2019 by patsylabrador Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
