Mylander Issue 87

From inside the community Nature Notes New life is emerging in a flush of yellow. Primroses, crocus, aconites, daffodils then forsythia matching the occasional sunshine. This combination brings a collective sense of warmth and well-being. Other colours are here too amidst the dominant yellow, the white of snowdrops and blossom from the cherry plum, a variety of shades from the polyanthus, the cyclamen, not forgetting the dog violets emerging in the lawn. The latter seem to have found a spot to congregate and form a settlement of their own, a township of purple heads within a well-defined boundary. I will take care with the mower. There are signs that the cyclamen may follow suite. They too have spread and brought a swathe of colour to the rockery and they seem to have decided not only to cascade down amid the rocks but hop onto the lawn. Another species with no respect for borders. Having said that I’m really quite happy to see them express an obvious happiness to be in our garden wherever they want to be. Careful where I walk. It’s good to hear the birdsong and to see them paired up, arriving in couples at the feeders or flitting about between hedges and shrubs. Less of a birdsong and more of a noise was a pair of gulls mobbing a common buzzard disturbing my peaceful work on my allotment. This began me thinking about how many ‘birds of prey’ we can see from urbanised Myland, because areas such as Cymbeline Meadows and other patches of natural habitat still exist. 27