Wet Spring

We have a beatiful wee spring here at the Croft. Opened up by the previous owners, it is marked on the Montseny map as running all year. For the last ten years - thanks to climate change here - the spring has been silent all summer.

But in the six months since December we have had 40% more rain than the average, the wettest spring since 2010. So the spring runs.

Winter becomes Spring

The winter is over. While the astronomic winter carries on for another week to 19th March, it's all over here. Yesterday the thermometer went above 20ºC. The donkeys have a new field to enjoy.

Smokin' Donkeys

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz...

It's the grass, man

  ...and the toads are frolicking in the irrigation tank. These are Midwife Toads, I think, and the male is much smaller than his girlfriend. Toad sex is a long, drawn-out affair:

I have been checking my bees and the signs are good; they have survived the winter - no surprise, it was so mild - and seem in fine feckle for the Spring campaign. The blackthorn is in full flower, as is the rosemary, so there is no shortage of nectar.

Spring has Sprung

Walking in the mountains above the Croft today we came across these beautiful Hepatica nobilis, flowering at 1100 metres.

A Noble Liver, indeed

Spring is here, and the bees are getting busy. When I opened a hive this past weekend I found bee larvae in various stages of development, on the top bars of the hive. I am now on constant swarm-patrol, watching out for signs of queen cells...

Who took the roof off?

Spring Nectar

The bees are out. 

Green flower power

It's the early flowering in this unusually early spring, as our Mediterranean Buckthorn (Rhamnus alaternus) produces its anonymous wee green flowers. 

The Buckthorns are buzzing with bees - my wee black bees, and big bumble bees. Spring has sprung.