28th April from the West Cliff Green, Bournemouth

 As soon as you step out onto the West Cliff Green, you are greeted with a chorus of Squeeeeeze  Squeeeeeze.  From the bushes on the clifftop.  It is the greenfinches.  Sometimes the interpolate a couple of warbling song phrases but for most of the day it’s Squeeeeeeze Squeeeeze.   Blackbirds are also at their full on song.  I counted five singing from various tall trees at once. Charlock is scrambling through the tall grass,  Their cruciform pale yellow flowers are fragile and papery and have curled away by lunch time.  The big rolling grey clouds begin to break up and the afternoon is warm with a little or no breeze. A pigeon sits on the warm tarmac and the leaves of the Bears Paws are big and glossy.

From 28th April 2022

The sun is blurred and hazy but the wind has dropped so it's warm enough for April. The glassy green sea rushes gently at the shore. The sand is flat and largely empty. A handful of swimmers have braved the water. Where someone has been strimming some of the grass, they have left stands of the more prominent flowers. This has revealed a perennial Honesty with its bright magenta cruciform flowers and, flat papery seed pods already forming. On the green two black headed gulls are performing their dance of romance They stand face to face and open wide their beaks to yell at each other with their loudest screams possible. Then they fly up and around each other, biffing one another with their wings before returning to yelling again. Love or war? Difficult to tell with gulls. And humans come to think of it. #bournemouth #westcliffgreen #spring #April

From 28th April 2021

Occasionally the sun peeps through the boiling, smoky mass of clouds enough to cast a weak shadow on the path and there is a moment of warmth but there is still a cold wind from the north so as soon as the grey closes in again it is decidedly chilly. Last night the ire brigade came to deal with a gorse bush that was on fire and during the dark there were a few drops of rain but there is a sense in which spring is on hold for the moment.

From 28th April 2017

You know that bloke who goes round care homes with an accordian doing songs for reminiscence therapy? I'm looking forward to hear how he handles my request for the whole of "Dark Side of the Moon" when my girls finally get me in there in a few years.