Verge

With sympathy for those still struggling with snow, but despite the light frost this morning, we seem to be seeing signs of spring. There are lots of daffodils along the roadsides and although they are a bit droopy, they seem to have survived the cold.

I saw the first pond skater of the year on our little pond today, tadpoles are beginning to hatch and wriggle about on top of their spawn and chaffinches have been singing their spring songs. Some years ago (about 25!) I had a week's cycling holiday along the D-Day invasion beaches between Le Harve and Cherbourg, and in all the military cemeteries, chaffinches were singing. Hearing the song takes me straight back to the rows of hundreds of white crosses with their humbling inscriptions.