Spring is in the air . . .

Whilst out walking Dylan our Springer Spaniel in Froggatt woods wearing shorts the other day, it was hard to deny Spring was well and truly in the air. I'm not saying that winter might not have one more bite left in it yet, just that Spring has taken command.

The Silver Birch that dominate the woods were slowly coming into bud and even the later budding Beech was showing signs of finally dropping all of its last season golden crop of leaves.

I wasn't shocked to see that I wasn't the only fool hardy idiot out walking in shorts, in fact I passed several and it was because the air was so undeniably warm. If this evidence wasn't substantial enough, as I came down from my walk back to Grindleford I passed my first grass cutter of the year, obviously wanting to start with the official start of British Summer Time.

I always find it a wonderful time when you start to see the seasons change, which ever they may be. But I think Spring has to top the season changes, when it come to what a new season may hold, there is something so expectant about it. Winter draws to a conclusion slowly, still leaving the odd frost well after we have all started wearing t-shirts (if not shorts!), but Spring proffers Summer up, warm nights and lazy weekends warming our cold bodies after the dank Winters we get in Britain.

The psychological affect it has on you can be astounding, some how all of the worries that have been with you over the Winter months seem to slip into your sub-conscious and you are reborn with this new feeling that everything is going to be all right after all.

It's been nice to really start noticing the smaller components of season change since we left London to live in the country again. Whilst in London you obviously still get the major factors of the air temperature and the hours of daylight, you don't however notice as many of the other factors. The abundance of life is slapping you in the face at this time of year out of the cities, birds everywhere nest making, flower bulbs pushing their way out of the now fully soaked soil. Give it a few more weeks and the Bluebells are going to adorning the wood floor like a fairy carpet here.

With a young child in our family now, it seems to be all that more important to witness these things, I grew up having all of these changes pointed out to me by my parents and they have stayed with me all my life. My wife mocks my boring tirades whilst we are out walking as I point out every detail of nature as we pass, but for me this is what I love about nature, it's detail and it's this detail I now want to share with our daughter in the hope that she too will incorporate it into her vision of the world.

I am currently reading Wildwood - A Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin, which whilst a somewhat eccentric take on woodland life is a refreshingly detailed account. Someone who truly encapsulates the comings and goings of a woodland environment and their seasonal changes. Some times I feel that in this fast paced modern world, which we all enjoy in different ways, we don't take enough time to notice the details. So next time you are out walking, whether it be in a woodland or even down Charing Cross Road, take a pause and take in some of life's wonderful details.

New place, new space . . .

Long time no blog . . .

Well it's been a while and in that while a lots happened.

We've moved, leaving behind the lovely countryside and mountain landscape of Cumbria to move to the Peak District, an area that we don't know so well.

The move has mainly been in the search for work that was sadly lacking in Cumbria.

But its not just our location that has changed, but our martial status changed just a few weeks ago after we eventually tied the knot in a wedding that should have been last year, were it not for the car accident. What a day, I would highly recommend it if you haven't tried it before . . .

The Peak, so far, has been superb. A perfect combination for us of rolling countryside and access to plenty of outdoor pursuits, but with the urban access to Sheffield and Manchester not all that far away. Access for us to all of this countryside seems all that easier, but it can only be on a psychological level, as we could walk out of door onto the fells in the Lakes, but either way it has helped me to get a lot fitter than I have been for several years.

But for others the Peak is a lot easier to access physically than the Lakes, with Sheffield on it's doorstep where we are. With this easier access you get a different variety of weekend user than we were used to seeing, equally in much larger numbers.

You start to miss the solitude the Lakes provided, where you could be on the summit of Great Gable, with no one except your own party for company to watch the mist slowly gathering around the back of Lingmell Col.

To alleviate our pining for bigger adventures we both went for an explore of the Kinder Scout area the other week, going up along the Pennine Way, Jacob's Ladder and on to the downfall where the wind on this particular day was blowing the waterfall back up the mountain with quite impress effect, and then back across the top and down Crowden Brook. A curious landscape with the gritstone forming many fantastic shapes among the black peat, like some 60's Martian film set.

But here we missed the additional push required to reach the summits that we were used to from the Lakes and while the view across to Lancashire was impressive it didn't have that somehow untethered beauty of the Lakes.

All this aside, we think we may have found our new home here and we are falling for the area quickly, with access to some of the urban facilities, that even we missed after a decade in London, on our doorstep in Sheffield. Yet, peace and quiet at night and a blanket of stars over head when it's clear. Oh, and not to forget some very friendly folk who have made us feel nothing but welcome.

Right, I promise, not so long till the next post . . .