Yellow seems to be the colour to welcome spring. Lesser Celandines are now in flower on the bank on the Needham Road opposite the Three Cocked Hat.

Primroses have opened for some time in the sheltered Bank of the ditch at the beginning of the Henley Road and a Cornelian Cherry is now in bloom leaning over into the churchyard from the garden at the western end by the gate. One of the first butterflies, the male Brimstone has been seen by several people round Mary Day Close, in a garden at the bottom of the High Street and flying along a sunny hedge in Creeting. The early flowers that are not yellow are the Blackthorn and the  Cherry Plum, Prunus cerasifera. Both have white flowers but the former has no leaves at the moment and has thorns while the latter produces leaves at the same time as the flowers. Both of these are growing in a garden beside the footpath leading to the bridge.
Some birds are nesting now and the Rooks in the Rookery behind the Coddenham Centre have been busy sprucing up their nests which are very well made as is evidenced by the fact that they have withstood the recent strong winds. I suspect that a pheasant is nesting in the plantation at the back of Mary Day Close as there is no sign of the female Pheasants that used to wander round the paths but the Male Pheasant struts up and down the parking area making his raucous cries to warn us off the area. We shall see if he has kept them safe.

Brenda Hudson