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. 

Carmine spring watch 2011: February birdlife

A sunny day up here on the rock, but with a fair wind humming a contralto line around the highest eaves.

Suddenly, Carmine and the surrounding woodlands are full of birds. Our friends the wrens, the robins and the blackbirds are still scooting around the gardens, and the crows are, as often, making the woods ring. Now the swifts have returned, arcing gracefully and silently around the church tower, settling in a flock from time to time on the sunny roofs to soak up the warmth of the sun on the stone.

In the woods, the creaking of the trees is overlaid by the determined knocking of the woodpecker, and today I see him, flashing his red stripes from tree to tree, tapping experimentally in likely spots like an action hero looking for a secret door in the panelling. I always look forward to watching the woodpeckers choosing a nest-site and rearing their young. 

Even the chickens have visitors. A pair of brightly-coloured jays swoop heftily away as I round the corner of our baita. I hope to tempt them back with a little pile of red lentils. Less welcome - the chicken-mangling buzzard. I can see a pair swirling over the baita now, watching and waiting. 

Watching and waiting.  

Carmine spring watch 2011: scilla

Today, Carmine Superiore is billowing with intoxicatingly warm air, direct, I assume, from the Mediterranean. It feels like an English summer out there. Can't last, but I think the worst of winter is over.

This week, the first scilla have come into bud, and F.'s orchard is sprinkled with primulas and snowdrops.

Bel vedere

Warm and sunny. Tree cutting and rose pruning. Outdoor lunching. Spotted the first butterfly of the year, in exactly the same place as last year's first butterfly...there's a zoology thesis in there somewhere.


The tiny piazza beside Carmine Superiore's San Gottardo church offers a magnificent view of Lago Maggiore, the coast of Lombardy and the Swiss Alps. It can't be missed - after all, Carmine has only four 'streets', if you could call them that. 

This viewpoint is famous, and obvious, although I'm always amazed at the number of walkers who shoot straight through the village without locating either frescoes or panorama.

A not-quite-so-famous viewpoint takes in not only the lake and sights beyond, but also the village itself, with its stone roofs and pretty gardens. My neighbour, G., has made a sign so that you can't miss it...

From here, the great spur of rock on which Carmine is built becomes visible. And from here you get a real sense of why, more than 1,000 years ago someone put his hands on his hips, squinted his eyes against the sun and saw that this would be a good place to build a fortress.

Definitely worth the short climb.

Carmine Springwatch 2011: spotted!

Warmer, and more humid than of late. No sun. Just clouds. Two degrees at 8am, and a scattering of snow in the frost-pockets.

Spotted in the last week:

Winter jasmine cascading down terrace walls.

Two early daffodils in a south-facing niche.

A pair of purple periwinkles nestling into the roots of a tree.


And...

The first camellias in triumphant bloom.

Carmine spring watch 2011: hazel

Another bright and beautiful day, but today there's a stiff, blustery, laundry-drying wind. Time to open all the windows and doors and let the fresh air in!

The hazel catkins are out all over Carmine and beyond. Now, I know that hazel is classified as a winter-flowering plant, but the catkins remind me that spring cannot be far away, and that's good enough for me. 

They also remind me of my earliest, most magical school days when in January every classroom had its jar of catkins, and I associated them with kittens' tails and caterpillars. An association that, happily, has never really gone away.

Carmine spring watch 2011: Buds in January

After 36 hours lying under a blanket of thick fog, we have emerged into eye-blinking sunshine. Lunch en famille al fresco methinks.

A promise of winter's end.

Not yet, but coming soon.

For more beautiful flowers up close click here.

Carmine spring watch 2011: first primula

Spotted! The first primula of 2011, seen on the sentiero in Carmine Inferiore. Spring watch 2011 has begun!