Signs of spring!

Oh happy day!  We've had a stomach bug here in the last week, and then the kids didn't want to go out.  Today we finally made it out the door.


Spring is springing.  Today it was mild, sunny and fresh, perfect early spring weather.  I suggested  we spot signs of spring.  They were both reluctant but to my surprise changed their minds and we had a lovely hour or so of spotting.
We used the Nature Detectives download.  I love that website, so many great ideas and resources.

We saw everything, all practically on the doorstep.
Freddie spotted two ladybirds on the shrub in next door's front garden.  One was red with black spots, the other black with red spots.  It seems so early for ladybirds.

After lunch the kids played in the garden for the first time this year.  They found more signs of spring.  Unbelievably we found a (honey?) bee on the paving.  It looked very sorry for itself and didn't seem able to fly, though it seemed to have a droplet of nectar by the proboscis.
Freddie picked a leaf and I used it to transport the bee through the house to the front garden, where there is a heather in flower.

I hope the bee was able to get enough energy from the flowers to fly.


We mounted another rescue operation a few minutes later, when Freddie found a caterpillar on one of the toy trucks.  I don't hold out much hope for this one, as he looked like he had a pretty serious injury.

But it was moving, and we put it on a plant with delicious looking leaves.


So the kids played, and I got the garden table and a chair out the shed and sat with a cup of tea in the sun.  Lovely!