Sherborne Spring is not far away

I do this every year and see signs of spring way too early. Sorry about that but I suspect I’m like many of you. What I’m really seeing are probably signs of “late winter”, but hey ho. Let me know when you see your “spring signs”. Here’s what I’m seeing:

• The first crocus coming out - just give it a couple of hours of sunshine and they appear from nowhere.
• The first song thrushes letting rip. Not yet from a high stand but from the safety of some bushes. Their song is such a strange range of noises for a common-place bird. Play that link on a loop and I guarantee a lift of spirits.
• Mallards starting to chase each other
• Swans “moving about”. Serena reports comings and goings of several swans - and it’s not quite clear who is who, and who is going to settle in for a full season and where.

For me, expect slightly fewer posts this spring. I’m deep in a few major projects, in particular surveying the remarkable “hidden” or “secret” geometric framework of both Sherborne Park and Lodge Park, working my way through the mediaeval charters and the 1711 estate accounts, and it won’t surprise you, perhaps I think I have found yet another “lost” prehistoric burial mound in Lodge Park, by studying some WW2 aerial photography. That may have to wait for the summer and Lodge Park being open again on some weekends.

WW2 aerial imagery of Lodge Park. ask me nicely and I’ll point you to what might be the next “new” rediscovered burial mound.

There’s also something peculiar between the Iron Age Windrush camp and the A40, that I’m trying to characterise. It’s certainly older than Iron Age - partly in a field called “Deadman’s Ground”. Spooky enough for you?