| The five senses of spring |
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After the quiet stillness of winter, the countryside explodes into life in March and April. There’s something to excite all your senses, as local photographer Dan Waters explains Sight It’s a great British symbol - a shimmering sea of azure bluebells quivering in a woodland glade. They generally bloom in early April although a mild March can certainly coax them out. Two great places to see them are Bluebell Wood at Ferry Meadows, Peterborough and Thorpe Wood Wildlife Trust Reserve. Sound If you don’t mind early starts, this is the best time of year to hear the dawn chorus at its prodigious peak. If you listen carefully, you may notice that there is a regular sequence, with some species starting before others. The early risers are song thrushes, robins and blackbirds, and as they do eat worms there may be some truth to the old saying “the early bird catches the worm!” Great spotted woodpeckers are famous for drumming on hollow trees to find insects and to mark their territory in spring. Choose a warm day and head for any local wood and try this little trick to get a closer look. Take a dead stick and hammer it in fast short bursts against a hollow tree. With a little luck, perseverance and quick hands you might encourage a territorial male to come and take a look at you, in turn giving you a decent view too. Smell Wild garlic is actually an assault on almost all your senses. These aromatic plants have the same taste and smell as you would expect from traditional garlic and a thick white carpet of them is a startling sight. They can be found at Thorpe Wood nature reserve, but I would not encourage you to pick them as any wild plant is protected. However, feel free to touch and sniff them, if you don’t plan on shaking anyone’s hand for a while! Taste You’ve heard of the drink dandelion and burdock? Well, you can actually stir-fry the roots too. Just cut them up and fry in some butter for a couple of minutes and then simmer in water or soy sauce until they’re soft. The roots can even be roasted to make dandelion coffee. In fact most of a dandelion can be eaten apart from the bitter stem and the older flowers and leaves. Touch This is a two way street. If you go out and experience the wildlife that’s all around you then it will actually touch you, as much as you touch it. Whether it’s just a stroll round your local reserve or you decide to get your hands dirty and help out your local conservation charity, getting in touch with nature can have a profound effect. Even a few tweaks to your garden can have birds, mammals, reptiles and insects making a bee-line to your back doorstep. A humble compost heap in my mum’s back yard has yielded guaranteed sightings of slow worms and the odd grass snake – great for keeping the slugs off your vegetable patch. Even in the middle of Hampton I’ve had a woodpecker hammering at my bird feeder on several occasions. Act In nature, spring is a time of fresh starts. By now you’ve probably broken all your new year’s resolutions, so why not start afresh and commit to getting in touch with your environment a little more? It relieves stress, keeps you fit and heightens all your senses. You might say it helps you appreciate the smaller things in life and that’s something we can all aspire to. |
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