What it's all about

Having returned to live in Walberswick at the end of last year we realised that we would now have the chance to see all the seasons unfold on a daily basis, rather than on the occasions that we visited family. We decided there and then to keep a diary of the "firsts and lasts" of nature, i.e. the first swallow of summer, the first frost and so on. Of course we never actually got round to it then, although we talked about it a lot, but now that I'm back from my Arctic adventure we've finally got round to it. We'll start with a quick summary of the last few days, which have been particularly exciting as Spring has finally sprung but the first proper post will be Sunday 28th March 2010 as the clocks went forward and it has spurred us into action.

Both Mertz and I will post here and we would really welcome input from locals who have experienced "firsts and lasts". Although the main theme of the blog is the changing landscape and nature around us in this wonderful village, there will also be notes on other indicators of the changing seasons.

We saw our first lambs on Thursday, although strictly speaking they were North of the river as ours had been moved off, presumably to lamb elsewhere, maybe they are actually the same flock, who knows? The daffodils on the green were out the week before but we picked out first from the garden this week and the pussy willow finally burst through. The caravans are slowly returning to the camp site, one by one on huge transporters that wiggle their way through the village with their precarious loads, one of the signs of the returning visitors on 4 wheel and 2 legs. On the winged front, Skylarks have been heard for the last couple of weeks and I have seen them hovering over Cliff Field in the mornings, reminding me of my childhood, when I would point at the sky and shout "Lylarks", apparently. The skies have also been filled, over the last few weeks, with the most powerful demonstrations of aerobatics by the local starling population as the murmurations have become more and more dense, stunning even the villagers into silence as they gaze up, hoping to avoid a blessing in the eye.