you could almost believe it was spring!

A beautiful warm and sunny dog walk, with just a light breeze, which meant I had a good chance of photographing my first butterfly of the year, so I took my camera and yes right on cue - this small tortoiseshell butterfly turned up at just the right moment!

the birds were in full song too, such as this wren - belting it out!!!

such a big noise from such a tiny bird -

and this chaffinch too!

My favourite kind of dog walks!

wild daffodils

Today we chose to visit Georges Hayes, a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve, with ancient woodland and wild daffodils which were just coming into flower, I expect the best is yet to come, but it was still spectacular accompanied with a hint of the heady scent of wild garlic providing a suggestion of what is yet to come!

wild daffodils, wood anemone and celandine 

On the 19th March 2011 we visited Georges Hayes to view the beautiful show of daffodils, and after all the snow and wintry scenes over the last week and this Easter weekend I had hoped that a return visit today might just prove that Spring is actually happening.
We arrived to find the whole woodland covered in snow, undeterred we continued with our walk.
The wood looked spectacular even under steely skies and at time we caught glimpses, where the snow had melted, of a late spring to come with a mass of wild garlic leaves.

But we really had to hunt for any sign of daffodils, treading very carefully, wherever possible on the same footprints of  previous walkers, as we were aware that under our feet daffodils could be on the verge of breaking through the snow.

So this weekend wasn't the right time for viewing the daffodils this year - hopefully in a couple of weeks time they will be out in their full glory