It’s been a long, dark and challenging winter. At times it felt never-ending, like I’d be stuck in the darkness forever.

So this year the coming of Spring is so much more joyous. Hedges, woodlands, streams, moorland are all brimming with life, almost each day I welcome another returning plant being. I realise how important this cycle of life is to me, has always been to me.

Greeting the new arrivals, from snowdrop to primrose, white deadnettle, early purple orchid and campion, each brings a moment of pure joy- they’re back! These season-change moments are a way to connect to the wheel of the year, a moment of noticing the changing. Hedgebanks in Devon are bursting into rich abundance at this time of the year, at their most beautiful.

I also see this welcoming back as a way to connect to this land, the little patch of Devon I call home. I know the verge where orchids flourish, so keenly scan it each time I drive past, yesterday was the exhaltation for the first flower spike poking through the grass. I know where to see rivers of snowdrop, the shady spots where ramsons carpet the ground. It’s a deep knowing, it’s time to observe, to notice, to rejoice.

It’s not just plantlife of course that cycles through the year. Migratory birds are returning, a pair of chiffchaff were tweeting to each other in the willow this morning, I’m keeping my ears peeled for cuckoo which have been heard on the moor this week. The first swallows have arrived, I wait for their full number and of course, my beloved swifts will soon cut through these skies. Newts abound in our pond, yellow bellied, tails vibrating in elegant courtship displays. The first dragonflies are patrolling the lanes for midges.

It’s not so long ago, noticing these cycles and returning would have been essential to our survival. Knowing where to find food and when could have meant the difference between life and death. As a society, we have largely become detached from the natural world, see it as other than us. And how great a loss. To not notice or rejoice in a constantly changing, constantly fascinating, constantly nourishing cycle of life. What does a year feel like, if you don’t see these changes?

This year, the noticing feels so much more important. The Spring feels more of a gift thanever before. Cherishing tiny moments of slowing down enough to look. My day can be lifted, just by one birdsong, one flower, one newt-tail. Fleeting moments, but oh so precious, so life affirming, so grounding.

Go outside, stare at a hedge, a pond, the sky. Just for a couple of minutes. Breathe it in. Really look. You won’t be disappointed, I guarantee!