Easter Sunday April 4th 2010

Daffodils, particularly round the edges of the wood. They ignore the boundary lines. I set out an Easter egg hunt for the children with rhymes and picture clues while J and the boys laid a fire. We were joined by friends; two more adults, two more boys, and a dog. Their seven year old particularly enjoyed poking the fire while R got stuck into sawing logs and splitting them using his late grandfather's wedges and his father's lumphammer. There is something about this handing on of tools...

We took the van and just made it up onto the hardcore, but it was a bit tricky on the slurpy mud. The access is very rutted, although that may date back to the felling of the wood. We met our neighbours and assured them, I hope, that we love the wood for its peace and are not going to be setting up paintballing or a rock festival. They said that the field access is only used about twice a year, so we think it will be okay to park the van there if we decide to stay overnight in future.

Oldest son, despite being fifteen, was really keen to come and admitted that he enjoyed himself. It was delightful to see both boys running off across the wood like puppies. Later in the afternoon, some more friends arrived and oldest son took them on a tour round the boundary. At only 4 and half acres, it doesn't take long. When everyone had gone, the late afternoon sun gave us cause to forgive the rain at lunchtime (which had forced us all to squeeze together in the van to eat).

My favourite part of the day was at about half past five when we walked all the way around the boundary again (first time all day for me) and then sat by the fire on the stumps J had dragged over. Soon there will be bluebells at the southern edge, where there are currently a mix of multi-headed and more simple daffodils. J pointed out a tiny poppy variety. Somewhere a woodpecker was busy.