Walk, don't run......

      I'm still resting - from running - and starting to feel some energy seeping back into the system. The 'Arizona' pills have helped me sleep longer with no noticeable side effects other than requiring a little more effort to get out of bed each morning.

Resting in the sun...     (Click to enlarge pictures)

  I'd intended spending a month resting and recharging the old batteries but warm Spring weather has got me chomping at the bit and rarin' to go again after only a couple of weeks.  Fifteen miles of walking at the weekend was quite enjoyable but I'm missing that natural rhythm of running.

Ring ouzel country...Mossdale

      I walked over into Mossdale in search of ring ouzels. Last year the first male arrived on March 13th, the earliest ever recorded there. This year, and twelve days later, I sat around for a good while by the shooting hut, watching and listening, but none came.

A splash of colour in the garden

      Gardening has been demanding my time. Work in the local cricket field, just over the wall, eventually persuaded me it was time to mow the lawns. Ready for lying on. Bees were busy on the flowering currant bushes and a cheeky robin was flitting around in case I unearthed some tasty morsel while hoeing round the Spring flowers.

Heather burning on Grassington Moor

      There was much activity on Grassington Moor as a gang of gamekeepers were burning vast areas of heather, supposedly to encourage new growth.  I just hope none of our ground nesting birds have already begun laying eggs.

Away from the crackle and smoke

      I found a sheltered spot to lie in the sun, well away from crackling fires and acrid smoke, to doze for a wee while in haunts of curlew and lapwing.  Far from the madding crowd.  Peacock butterflies were spreading their wings on warm stones for the very same reason I was spread out on the springy turf, to take our fill of healing ultra-violet rays.

Geese and oystercatchers by Mossy Mere

      On a rare visit to Mossy Mere, beyond Scar Top House, a colony of greylags were fraternising with oystercatchers among the reeds at the waters edge.

Getting closer to the greylags

 Geese took to the water as we approached while their black and white tuxedoed friends flew around noisily before landing a safe distance away.

Mossy Mere

      Warm weather has lambs frisking in the fields, leaping like lunatics, racing around or playing king of the castle, as they do. Below them in the ghyll coltsfoot and primroses are dotting the banks.  Jackdaws are making new homes in a rocky outcrop overlooking the beck, with a great deal of arguing.

Coltsfoot in the ghyll

      All this energy and activity in the natural world, the warm and colourful and noisy pageant of unfolding Spring. It really doesn't seem right that, of all the times of the year, I should choose Spring to be resting.

      Where are those running shoes....