Hello again
Well, Spring has sprung! The birds are singing, the bees are buzzing and some butterflies are fluttering.
It was very Spring-like on 24th February, so I was encouraged to take a walk down to Tuck Mill. Some primroses were flowering along the lane, but the recent storms have felled two trees by the river. Talking of primroses, have you seen them outside Nan’s 
by Warren Close. They have special significance for Margaret and I because the seeds were sown by Jackie Platt, who lived there, and has since sadly passed away.
The first early birds we hear singing are the robins, dunnocks and chaffinches, and they are now almost in 
full song. I must rise earlier in the morning, to hear the full dawn chorus! On a walk round Upton the other day, we saw several butterflies, including three lovely yellow brimstones, and five small tortoiseshells. These will have survived the winter, in a shed or similar hiding place. Down in Cornwall, at Lanhydrock National Trust garden, there were lots of butterflies, including some commas, so called because on their underwings, they have a small white mark, which looks like a comma.
I was amazed to see on telly that some beavers have been spotted on the river Otter! I thought
they must have been otters, which is more likely, but no, they were definitely beavers. What do you know!!
