Never mind the official dates for the arrival of Spring it really arrived this week! The almost continual wet weather that stretched way back into 2012 dried up at last and Spring became a reality.
The start of the calving and lambing has brought life back into the fields around the farmyard as the first to calf and the first of the lambs got their taste of freedom. Their mothers enjoyed some fresh grass but had to go looking for it as the growth is minimal and their diet has had to be supplemented with silage.
The garden birds resplendent in their breeding plumage have entertained us throughout the winter but now have something else to sing about as they set about the business of attracting a suitable mate. The usual collections of Tits and Finches have had their numbers swollen by a flock of Siskin that only now have dispersed.
We have a few nest boxes on trees around the house and today I noticed a Blue Tit examining one of them with a view to setting up house there.
The Rooks which always started to build on 1st March look like they have deserted us again this year. We blamed their departure on the destruction of the Palmerstown woodland some three miles away. It had the largest rookery in the County but a more likely explanation for their disappearance is the arrival of Buzzards. A pair of them have nested on the farm in recent years and their whistle call put the Rooks on red alert. Initially the Rooks were able to fight off the Buzzards but the latter have had some success at robbing the nests in the Rookery so our friendly Rooks have packed up and moved on.
Elsewhere there is a tinge of green appearing on the hedgerows and the snowdrops which cover the floor of the spinney have now to compete with the bright yellow of the emerging daffodils and primroses.
Another spring has arrived as promised, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis Chapter 8 verse 22.
A promise kept. Another reminder given to us of the heavenly harvest of which the earthly harvest is but an analogy.
The writer to the Hebrews touches on this when he describes who Jesus is and the work He has done, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3.
A seated Saviour represents a job completed. The sin barrier removed by the cross. A way opened for the blood bought believers. A harvest of souls of which our harvests are analogous.
Put your faith in Jesus the Lord of the harvest.