The world is waking up!

It is Sunday evening, near the end of the weekend, and the first real taste of spring we have had this year!

It already seems an age since the excitement of our Nicaragua trip. With the cold weather upon us and the need for a much higher than usual level of fitness behind us, the diet and exercise regime, while still adhered to during the week has been a bit relaxed at weekends.

BUT! Saturday started warm and sunny, the shorts came out and the doors to the back garden were hooked open! Tuesday sees the start of our exercise 'boot camp' where we will be under the guidance of a pesonal trainer for 5 weeks and the wildlife has started to emerge! What better incentives could we have to start working on our bodies again!

I only took a few photographs over the weekend as we were lucky enough to have lots of time to play with our grandson! He loves the garden, so our first stop was the pond! To our delight we found a huge bunch of frogspawn!

Last year we had a similar bunch, but lost most of it to a late frost! Hopefully this brood will be luckier. It certainly looks healthy enough at the moment.

This is always a good sign, because if the frogs are out, so are bugs! If the bugs are out, so are the birds and over the weekend we have seen sparrows, robins, tits, blackbirds, pigeons and doves in the garden! From the noise we can hear it is clear the sparrows are nesting in our privet again! maybe I will get some more bird pictures soon (When we are not running around the garden having fun with little Ewan!

Earlier in the day we spotted a magnificent pair of buzzards at Avon Heath Park, a few miles from our home. These stunning birds of prey are thankfully making a successful comeback after years of decline and are the largest bird of prey we get in Southern England. The shot below is not very good, but they were a very long way off, circling in the thermals.

Back to the garden later in the day, and another trip to the pond rewarded us with a quick glimpse of 'Mummy' frog!

Good to know the babies will be well looked after! We have had resident frogs in the garden for years now! It is well worth putting a small pond in the garden and letting the area around it grow wild. Even a tiny area like ours attracts so much wildlife!

No session in the garden would be complete without bugs! We do have all the usual woodlice etc starting to emerge, but they are still very lethargic. This rather beautiful millipede was fully awake and active though!

I also find, presumably due to global warming, that every year brings new and more exotic bugs to our shores!

We found this creature at Avon Heath Park. It seemed to like the sandy heath as it made no attempt to fly off while I photographed it! Ok, not everyones cup of tea I know, but the sheer diversity of the life around us never fails to amaze me!

Maybe the best news of the weekend! We saw plenty of bumble bees, both at Avon Heath Park and in our own garden! Bees have been having a hard time in recent years due to disease, so it always reasuring to see them return each year.

The one below was having a fine old time in the crocuses and snowdrops that are flowering under our apple tree.

Finally, a picture without any bugs or other creatures-our snowdrops. The area underneath the apple tree looks wonderful at the moment - and with daffodils soon to follow!

Thats about it for now! Nothing very spectacular, but a wonderful example of how the world is waking up around us as spring approaches!

Apart from the frogspawn, which we snapped on Saturday, all the other pictures were taken today (Sunday). I hope this inspires you to dig your cameras out and start snapping away!

Hope you enjoyed this post! Let me know?