Spring is definitely with us after a very wet March.  We have April showers – it even snowed for a minute or two earlier today – and spring flowers.  The cherry blossom is out and there are lambs in the fields.

The birds are marking out their territory and gathering material for their nests.  During just 15 minutes of my walk to my Food Bank duties in Stroud yesterday I switched on the Merlin bird identification app on my phone and detected (and sometimes saw) 20 different bird varieties (plus a seagull and a buzzard that didn’t squawk at the right time).  Spring is such a busy time for these little home builders and it was relieving and lovely to hear that our rural pathways are still home to such avian diversity.

The outside temperatures are gradually rising with the prospect of heatwaves to come.  At Easter, when Youngest Son and Middle Son came to stay for a couple of days and the weather was sunny, we managed our first outdoor lunch of the year. 

Spring really is a season of new life and promise.

Except that, this spring, we are mourning the passing of Jane’s mother who died peacefully last week in the care home we had all come to love and respect.  Her death came as no surprise after a steady decline hastened by a fall but of course there is mood of sadness around the family.  Easter and its Bank Holiday’s was a convenient pause for Jane to enable reflection on her relationship with her Mum before getting stuck into the administration of funeral arrangements.  Death brings sadness but also a need for clear thinking about the fall out.  Death balances out life.

Before the funeral we are off to Edinburgh to see Eldest Son, his partner and First Grandchild.  That will be a great distraction and an antidote for Jane to the last couple of weeks of focus on looking after her Mum and then the mourning of her passing.  Of course, discussions about Jane’s Mum and the making of funeral arrangements will continue, but it will be in the company of a little grandchild who will demonstrate as vividly as possible that life goes on.

A few days of tiny, effervescent youth and spring; what could be better!