Hello clouds hello sky

[dolorous_ett]

It's been a pig of a term, and I've just spent the morning trying to sort out the Administrative Cockup That Should Never Have Been. 

To take my mind off things, I'm trying to concentrate on first signs of spring - always a thing I love, and an amazing stress reducer. I've been trying to determine my favourite - the great swathes of daffodils I pass on the way to work? The chortling blackbirds? A thrush with grass for the nest in its beak, producing a comical moustache effect? The very first tender leaves appearing on the trees? The lighter days? The way I can get out of bed without shivvering?

This year, I think the prize probably goes to the pair of magpies making their nests in one of the trees outside my office. They just pick up sticks in their beaks and drop said sticks at a fork in the branches until something sticks - but it does seem to work, and it seems to be a proper working nest now, as I sometimes see a long black tail hanging out the end. 

Have you encountered any pleasant and uplifting spring-like things recently? Do tell! It's Friday afternoon and I bet a lot of us could do with something cheering!

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Not yet seen, but I'm in Yorkshire next week and am looking forward to the classic scenes of little lambs gambolling joyfully in the fields. Hikes get an awful lot longer when you stop every hundred yards to watch a particularly cute pair.

(aargh things that should never have been and yet are)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Awwww! Are they still at the hopping-about stage?

(aargh things that should never have been and yet are)

Trouble is, there are so many things that fall into that category! Still, lambs, magpie nests and butterflies help keep things in proportion. Mostly...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Are they still at the hopping-about stage?
They should be - I seem to remember pretty frisky little lambs last Easter.

There are many troublesome things. I've just booked flights to the USA for June - it turns out that £200 flights to said nation are a myth.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

There are many troublesome things. I've just booked flights to the USA for June - it turns out that £200 flights to said nation are a myth.

I had just the same experience going to China last year - STA quoted £350 and actually couldn't get me a flight to Beijing for under £680. This booked two months in advance, mark you. I think that for travel agents, if it's possible by some wierd conjunction of odd combined offers you can get a low price for one flight ever, you get to stick that on your notice board outside the shop to entice poor suckers in.

*shakes fist at extortionists*

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

if it's possible by some wierd conjunction of odd combined offers you can get a low price for one flight ever, you get to stick that on your notice board outside the shop to entice poor suckers in

They do the same with trains. "Trains aren't expensive! Look, London - Edinburgh return for £30". And then you try to book. I gave up on STA in the end, and used opodo.com who have been good for me before. PErhaps we have been spoiled by the relative ease, as much as cost, in book flights within Europe over the last 5 - 10 years, not that I often do. Oh well, £470 out and back to/from different cities on Virgin Atlantic, plus internal flight, all at good times, is not too bad.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

It's not ideal, but you could go further and fare worse.

I took Virgin to Shanghai a couple of years ago, and it was really rather nice. The planes were comfy, there were gadgets to amuse you on the flights (little TVs in the seat backs, etc), nice food and comfy chairs. A lot nicer than Virgin Trains!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I really hate flying, so the prospect of nice planes was a definite pull (even if I intend to be in a drug-induced coma most of the time).

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I get very airsick, so I usually spend the journey off my face on the strongest travel sickness medicine I can get my hands on (I keep a stash of stuff you now can't get over the counter for those long flights).

I suppose it at least helps time pass more quickly!

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

The first butterfly meandered past me today. A Painted Lady.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

(I like the word "meander" here - just describes those odd wobbly trajectories they have)

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

I was trying to avoid fluttered but it really isn't easy!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Wobbled?

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

Wobbled is good!

[coyotegoth.livejournal.com]

This was absolutely adorable :)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Awwwwwwwwww!

I've only ever seen otters in zoos - and even then they are amazingly cute - and unlike a lot of cute creatures, very well-designed for the way they live, if you see what I mean.

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

The lighter days make so much difference! Lots of blossom on the trees, and the owls who appear to be courting in the garden. Just occasionally I wish they could be a little quieter about it, but it's such a fantastically eerie performance that I can forgive them the fact that it's three in the morning and I ought to be asleep...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean about the lighter days. I've felt it this year as never before - don't really know why.

Owls courting in the garden? Wow... hopefully that means you'll hear the little ones squeaking for their parents when out on flying trips later in the year...

*beats of Inner Crabbe with a stick*

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do hope so!

::embraces Inner Crabbe enthusiastically::

The other thing that is good about now is that I can start to sow seeds & put plants in the tubs on my balcony - today I have enjoyed myself pottering about the garden centre choosing flowers and the intriguing asparagus pea (next time I need a Potterverse plant, I should definitely use the Wonderfully Frolicsome Legume...)

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Wonderfully Frolicsome Legume

Wow... three words I never expected to see together outside Harry Potter!

I'd love to see a story about that - there are not enough Herbology fics out there, and there's so much potential!

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

wel lthere has alwasy be enthe random night whe na duck or some kidn of small wren thinks it's morningand starts to make noise at four am or earlier...o hwell. there's no lunatic asylum for animals iguess...nor is therea nursery home fordemented ones...

fort her est i'm sure i heada thrush last week. and htis morning i hea birdof whichi wish i could use that as an alarmclock (althogu hi'd stil rather have a blackbird). this-one wassucha gentle high-pitched whistle, it was fantastic to wake me up.
and ther's sparrows. lotso fthem. havnga greattime just apperaing otu of nowherand yankign each other out of the bushes and makign lots of noise.
and i've heard occasional scens of one bird callign t o another. its' lek they talk 'dinner time.' 'now already?'
or some kidn of teasing 'come over he-ere' adn the other playign hard t oget. :)
i still love blackbirds best. i have other things liek these trees that are already bearing soft litle heary seed-houses but i don't knwowhatthattree is called in english.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Birdsong is wonderful. The astonishing thing is that I went through half my life not really noticing it at all. It wasn't until I'd spent 2 years in China (where there really are almost no singing birds in the towns except in cages) that I realised what I'd been missing when I came home!

Blackbirds are lovely - especially when they get all excited and finishing their singing with a very unmusical squawk!

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

i'm noticign it mcu mroe now that i have to get up early during the week. it's jstu fun to hear the wholethin start up and sorto f explode when you're waitign for the bus.
i lie kblackbirds. i liked themeven more oncei hearda report stating the male ones tend to have a knack for immitating all kidns of other birds and other sounds in hopes of impressing females or other males 9or intimidating the oens who wantto get near their nest). ther have ben cases where one imitated a high ringotne of amobile phone, car alarms, any thign they hear often enoug hto repeat themselves.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I like any bird that can imitate things. When I was young and getting over glandular fever, there was a bird outside my window that had learned the Radio One jingle from my parents and sang it as part of its song! Can't remember if it was a blackbird or a starling, though.

[erised1810.livejournal.com]

yo uare kidding! how fantastic. iv'e heard enoug hweird soudns of whichi wonder how birds codl even pay attention to something like that.
i should look over that essay i once worte for school about how lindren acquire their language. i was mostly just resumig nsome kind of cyllabus and it did talk about birds usig na similar pattern to learn their songs.

[aerama.livejournal.com]

Dad sent me this link: http://www.mishalov.com/Tom_Lehrer.html

I want owls courting now too! That's what I need - a nice yard with shady and secluded paths and large old trees. And lilacs.

The only spring-like things we've encountered have been astonishing near-80 degrees F for two days - last Sunday and Monday - which made everybody feel really happy. Unfortunately it has returned to the 50s or lower all this week, with talk of flurries next week. But I now have hope that the warmth will return!!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I want owls courting now too!

That would be cool - though the hoots could be a bit distracting if you have to get up for work the next day!

You're still getting snow? Brrrrr! Still, no doubt summer will be all the sweeter when it does come...

[lyras.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately we're going the other way now! It's dark by 6 pm - although on the plus side, I did get to see a gorgeous sunset while crossing the harbour yesterday. And although the sun's still shining, it's cool enough to go running, which is a relief.

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to be said for the other way - crisp autumn air, bonfires, scuffing your feet through fallen leaves (although they may do things quite differently in the other hemisphere - hard to tell from here as I've never been!)

[lyras.livejournal.com]

crisp autumn air, bonfires, scuffing your feet through fallen leaves

Not much of that going on yet, although the air is definitely fresher! I'm interested to watch autumn here, actually. Last year we went home at the beginning of April after sitting on the beach topping up our tans, and then came back at the end of April and it was freezing!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

We had it the other way round this year - no real early spring to speak of - looked like it was starting up, then a really cold snap and now it's properly spring.

[dbassassin.livejournal.com]

This week the three month torrential rain decided to finally give us all a break and the cherry trees are bursting out everywhere. Along the street in front of my office building are a row of stupendous ones loaded with fully-double blossoms in the palest pink you can imagine.

Cherry blossoms always mean spring has finally arrived in Van. Then we have the ornamental plums to look forward to, then the apples in May

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

Cherry blossoms already? We don't get them here till May - but then the Meadows is covered with them.

Yours sound lovely! I wish I had cherry trees outside my office - I just have a boring old car park outside mine. (though the magpie nest is just visible from my desk if I sit at a really odd angle...