Spring Time in the Calder Valley
I am pleased to announce a new series of nature articles - Wildlife Watch - in the Halifax Courier newspaper. The piece below is a longer version of the first of these articles, published in the Courier on 15th April, and is also taken from a forthcoming collection of my Calder Valley nature writings. These last few weeks, many must have felt a quiet joy in witnessing, at the close of a difficult winter, the early signs of spring. Even those of us who like winter can't fail to appreciate the lighter nights, the unfurling buds and colour slowly rolling across the Calder Valley landscape. Outside my window in Sowerby Bridge, the canal towpath is glistening with dandelions, daffodils, anemones, primroses. At the wharf, and in front of the church, blossom trees are budding, igniting brightening air in soft pink kisses, like confetti at an unexpected wedding. By the waterside, white geese doze in snowy folds of feathers, or clamber from the Calder to the sandy banksides soon to ho