Spring green

I spent  wonderful couple of hours at Wicken Fen with my niece Kaddy, a poet whose second book is about to be published. We talked almost non-stop - only pausing to listen to the different songs of all the recently arrived migrant birds -  chiffchaff, willow warbler, Cetti's warbler, sedge warbler, blackcap and, most excitingly, the first cuckoo of the year.

We climbed up the rickety stairs to the top of the Tower Hide, where it was possible to see the film of fresh spring green appearing on all the trees and bushes, a sudden burst brought about by the unseasonably high temperatures. This is the view across Wicken Lode towards the reedbeds and mere of Adventurer's Fen.  

As I drove back through the Fens the car showed that is was 29C - the hottest April day since 1949. And it certainly felt like it!