Cold Air

The days are noticeably longer.  The night starts fading at about 6.30am and it is still light until about 5.30 or 6pm; nearly twelve hours of almost-light.  A cool grey morning here, the tops of the Radnor Forest hills are under heavy cloud.  I have been doing some small jobs but opened the window so that I could hear the birds, as we have had some good birds in the garden recently; nuthatches, goldfinches, greenfinches, and this morning we saw a greater/lesser spotted woodpecker very briefly.  We hear the woodpeckers in the woods above the house but haven't yet seen them in the garden.  I have seen up to four buzzards over the woods and even a red kite.  

Perhaps the knowledge that this Journal finishes at the beginning of next week has lulled me into a feeling that winter is winding down.  But with the longer days and the milder weather recently, it feels as if spring is on the way, which it didn't last end-of-Feb as I made preparations for the Spring Journal.