The arrival of spring keeps teasing! At once throwing drifts of snow over us then sneaking up with a warm sunny day that sets the birds all a twitter! Then suddenly a biting wind forces me inside to catch up on paperwork while lambs shiver under hedges.

But today the sun is shining again and I must leave my desk. With a foreboding weekend forecast ahead I set my sights to the Radnor Forest, boot-shod and walking poles at hand, to mud-slide my way towards the hill. And what rewards I find at the peaceful dew pond by the forest.

A heron rises from the reeded edge, but even then I am not alone. Suddenly a deep chorus of calling and beady frog eyes peep above the water. So this is the heron’s intended meal.

Even after all the snow and ice, somehow, the frogspawn jelly clumps have survived. The forest is alive and spring is in the air and in my step.