Carmine spring watch 2011 : mid-March update

Today is almost hot in the sun, with a hairdryer wind blowing straight from Africa. In fact, at 2pm it was 30° in the sun and out of the breeze. Mathilda remains unlit for the second day running. All the windows and doors are open, and I'm shooing out the stale rainy-day air.

With only three days to go until the official first day of spring, the changes are starting to gather pace. Jakob! Lord of Misrule is ecstatic to see that his summer quarry, the lizards, have awoken from their slumber, and has started ignoring the fact that I'm on the other end of his lead when he makes a futile dash for one. 

In the trees, the bird species are growing in variety and number, and in the mornings they give the traffic noise from way down below plenty of competition. Over the chicken coop, the buzzards are a regular sight, and at the Castelli di Cannero in the middle of the lake, the herrings gulls are busily fighting for nesting space.

What's a-bloom? Camellias, of course. Daffs and narcissus. Elephants' ears, primulae and periwinkles. And there's blossom on the apricot trees - always the first to draw the bees fresh out of their hives - and on the forsythia and the magnolia.    

This morning I sunbathed for two hours (don't tell anyone), lying on a rock like lizard, high up in the woods with an unparalleled view of the lake. 


All alone. Just me, Jakob!, the deer and the sun.