The First Day of Spring

After what seemed to have been a very long and drawn out winter of rain and gales, the much-awaited first day of Spring arrived.  Thank goodness for that!  Of course, there is still plenty of room for more rain and more gales in Wales, but there's something very uplifting about it being Spring.  Every day brings a greater possibility of sunshine and warmth and that is a very good feeling indeed.

Something that wasn't feeling good today, was Mum's neck.  Every now and then she gets a horrid pinched nerve pain at the top of it which stops her from doing anything too much.  Although the pain wasn't too severe this time, it was decided that she, Dad and The Boy would have a gentle day out somewhere not too far away.

Instead of taking the car, they walked straight from Dad's house and along the long but flat road towards Rhuddlan.  The weather was overcast but dry and mild and The Family chattered happily along the way.   Once they had reached the end of the road, they crossed over and entered Rhuddlan Nature Reserve.

Despite being Spring, not of a lot of greenery had arrived.  Brown, withered trees and shrubs lined the pathway and the breeze had a chill to it.  It all looked quite bleak and lifeless until the sunshine came out and made the colours more vivid.  The Family kept their eyes peeled and did manage to find small signs of life.

A Spring lamb.  Put that knife and fork away, Dad!

A host of golden daffodils.

The buds were started to make a bit more of themselves.

Not long after entering the reserve, a bench came into view.  It was definitely time for a quick sit down.  The Family looked across the water of one of the pools and Mum spotted something swimming at the far side.  It looked very much like an otter!  Mum got very excited, but then a beak surfaced and Mum's otter had become a cormorant.  Poor Mum, she is desperate to see otters in the wild.

Cormorants are nice, but they are not as nice as otters.  Keep looking, Mum!

Dad, The Boy and honorary Family member, 'Woody', sporting Dad's hat.

Another cormorant statue and a rabbit.

It will be a while before the real dragonflies make an appearance...

But there were plenty of other things for the resident spiders to eat.  They must be very plump spiders!

All along their lovely walk, the Family were treated to some very potent smells of the countryside.  Apparently it is very good for the lungs but peeeeee-eeewwww, it sure was whiffy!  As they neared the end of the trail, though, the smells became a lot more pleasant.  Oh yes, very pleasant and very identifiable indeed.  Across the road from the end of the trail was a branch of KFC.

Dad is on a diet at the moment, but he has been very, very good.  KFC is not the best thing for a diet but it certainly isn't the worst either, so Mum treated The Family to a small lunch.  Dad had a healthy Original Recipe Ricebox, Mum had an Original Recipe Salad and The Boy had a Lunchbox and a Krush'em.  They took their food back across to the reserve and ate at one of the picnic benches.  Lovely!

The sun disappeared behind the cloud and The Family thought it was best that they headed back.  That chattered away all along the long but flat road back to Dad's house.  They hadnot gone anywhere miles and miles away and they hadn't gone anywhere particularly special, but they still had a super afternoon out and got some fresh air and exercise.  That's another four miles that they've clocked up this year and here's to many more!