Springtime For Me

There's been a slight disagreement in the press recently on when exactly is the first day of spring.  Officially, it is the spring/vernal equinox - the date when the sun crosses the celestial equator and when the length of day and night are equal.  In the pagan calendar, it is the turning point of the renewal of life as the sun returns to the northern hemisphere.  In both these cases, this means the 20th March.  However, the Met Office have simplified things a little and say they see March, April and May as the Spring months and so for them, the spring begins on 1st March.

I like to agree with both... its good to celebrate the day when the sun returns to the northern hemisphere to give us longer days again and bring life to all that grows, but its also easy to divide the 12 months of the year into 4 seasons and so March fall appropriately into spring and instantly conjures up images of daffodils, bunny rabbits and new born lambs.

The sunny weather this week has definitely helped, and so in my mind I have now entered spring and will tentatively start packing away some of my thickest, woolliest clothes this week-end to make more space in my wardrobe until the autumn returns.

To say goodbye to the winter we've just had - here are some of my favourite photos from the season.