It's Spring Equinox and in this episode I'll talk about some of my favourite signs of Spring here in Scotland.  Please see below for a transcript of the show. 

Hi everyone

Today it’s Spring Equinox, otherwise known as the first day of Spring, many cultures also celebrate new year at this time so Happy New Year to all those celebrating.

Here in Scotland, it looks like early spring has definitely sprung and we’ve been enjoying exceptionally warm weather for this time of year. Temperatures were higher than Greece yesterday but I don’t think it’s going to last much longer.  March is usually very unpredictable weather wise and we may even still get some more snow!

In today’s episode I wanted to talk about some of the main signs of Spring here. For me, personally  it’s really all about the flowers,  during the winter months it’s fun to watch out for the first flowers, usually snowdrops, quickly followed by  brightly coloured  crocuses and finally the most popular spring flower across the UK, the daffodil. It’s not native to Scotland and in fact is the national flower of Wales but  You can see daffodils almost everywhere here in springtime, in people’s gardens, growing wild by the side of the roads, in fields, in the middle of roundabouts,  basically everywhere. Hundreds of them.  They are pretty yellow flowers and really brighten things up especially after a long dark winter and seeing them means warmer drier weather is on the way and that soon winter will be a distant memory! They bloom for quite a few weeks so we even have an annual daffodil festival held in Fife although I think it will be online this year.

Another wonderful sign of Spring is new life being born, so much land is used for farming, especially the farming of animals,  so you don’t have to travel far to see brand new baby lambs jumping around in the fields, this is  a wonderful sight to see, they love to play and it’s great fun to watch.  If you are lucky you may also see some Highland calves which although it’s hard to believe, are even cuter than the grown up version.if you visit a farm you might even see some baby yellow chicks.

Finally, the clocks change time.  In Spring time at the end of March the clocks go forward 1 hour and we move from GMT or UTC to BST or British summer time.  What this means is that there’s more daylight in the evening and less in the morning.  So we can enjoy those long summer nights, such a contrast to the short dark winter days.

Spring is a time to be optimistic and In terms of weather, mid to late Spring is actually one of the best times to visit Scotland, the weather is drier, it can be quite sunny, especially in May and the most popular places aren’t as busy as they can be in summer time.  Obviously things are a bit difficult at the moment with lockdown continuing but keep that in mind for any future visits!

What are the signs of Spring in your country? How do you celebrate the end of Winter?  Whereever you are I hope you are able to enjoy the best of this season.

See you next time.