The antinews Pt 3: tfispring

Proper birdsong-filled, blossom-covered, warm sun on your back Spring has finally arrived. Have you felt it? I confess it gives me an urge to make a hat out of daffodils, scamper barefoot on a lawn and climb the nearest tree. It’s not too surprising really – as more flowers emerge in local hedgerows and gardens, more vivid colour enters our eyes, which triggers serotonin, one of the fleeced neurotransmitters. Levels of this cheery little compound are also boosted by the increase in the intensity of sunlight and the increased number of daylight hours. Spring increases serotonin and serotonin IS joy, hence my urge to dance a jig.

This change is evident in the photographs I’ve been taking in recent weeks. The subtle yet heartening colours of Spring have crept into both my camera roll and my Instagram feed. Brown and grey tones are more scarce and this dusty blue of the bluebells in our front garden, right here, is joining the palest yellow of primroses, the mauve of pulmonaria and the indigo of muscari buds and ass these flowers become numbers in both garden and hedgerow.

To mark the arrival of my favourite season, my pal Sara Tasker of @meandorla and I have hatched a new Instagram hashtag. #tfispring is about finding an unexpected drift of primroses, spotting a mahoosive magnolia in full bloom when you least expected it, a day when the sun actually warms your back as you walk along the street, blossom in all its forms, baking a cake to celebrate a tiny lamb you saw gambolling somewhere (Countryfile totally counts), crocheting a duckling – all of that gorgeous April/May-ish stuff. Crystallised violas? YES. A baby robin sitting on a twig? DEFINITELY.

It would be WONDERFUL if you joined in.

This week’s Spring-ish antinews headlines are

1. I have seen four bees. Two were honey, two bumble. All were busy.
2. I’ve seen 2 Brinstones. These beautiful yellow numbers may well have been the first butter-flies (see below).
3. I didn’t cut down my cardoon seedheads from last year (these are like really big thistles). I’m so glad I didn’t because I’ve seen at least 3 birds collecting the seedy fluff from them to line their nests
4. A blackbird has chosen our porch for one of its singing posts. A blackbird’s song is one of my very favourite sounds. When it’s tweeting at full pelt it’s LOUD and wonderful.

Image from here

NB: for those who are worried the ‘f’ in our hashtag stands for frogspawn, foxcubs, fritillaries (the snakehead or speckled butterfly kind), fennel and fluffy lambs.