Today was another glorious day, cold with blue sky and sunshine, so we decided to go for a walk along the lovely lanes of rural Lincolnshire that surround our home. What could be nicer on a winters afternoon? We chose the shorter of our ‘circular’ walks which is about 3 miles. There isn’t much to see at this time of year, but it was still good to be out in the fresh air.

We enjoy going for walks, and as well as the birds and other wild life we might see, there’s also the ‘unknown’ of what we might find. For example, we often come upon discarded bricks, which I’ve collected over the years and used for various garden edgings. Then there was the time we found a perfectly good pair of mens gardening gloves just lying on the verge, hardly worn. I also once found a TV ariel still in it’s plastic bag.

The best find ever though was just before Xmas one year, and it was carrots! There were loads of them. They had plainly fallen off the back of a lorry, literally. There we were walking along filling a bag with lovely carrots as we went. I seem to remember we had them with our Xmas dinner that year.

Today however there was nothing. We were surprised how wet and muddy everything was. Some of the fields had huge expanses of water lying in them and many of the drains or ditches which run between the fields and the road were full to the top. To be honest, I didn’t think we’d had that much rain. Heaven help us if we have a wet Spring.

One of the houses up the lane is having an extention built, it’s quite reassuring in these hard times to see someone making progress. I always think such projects are exciting. Then on the way passed the old chapel we saw the first daffodils of the year, admittedly only two were in flower, but you have to start somewhere. Every year it’s the same, the daffodils by the chapel are always first to bloom and once again they haven’t let us down.

The ones in our flower garden are still small green shoots, and the ones at the far side of the field are not even showing yet. A couple of flowers is only a small thing I know, but just another sign that Spring will soon be here.