Reward of our beautiful Sussex landscape - and hearing the first cuckoo

So redolent of spring, but having missed them for some years now, we heard a cuckoo at Etchingwood near Buxted on Easter Saturday.

Earlier, we had sat in the sun-dappled woods off Sandy Lane amid bluebells, primroses and wood anenomes in utter silence (no planes, no traffic, no wind-blown noise from Uckfield) – just listening to nothing but the wonderful songs of birds.

What a moment in these strange times.

On Easter Sunday our reward was the stunning landscape beneath Mount Caburn along the cycle path gazing at the gentle line of the South Downs at Firle in peace and quiet, rather than its usual constant roar.

Further on, we heard skylarks twittering and new-born lambs bleating in an otherwise silent world as we cycled home.

The garden now is mostly quiet, save for the busy robins, wrens, blackbirds, sparrows and blue tits busily nesting, reminding us how life must have been in Victorian times without the background drone and hubbub to which we are usually subjected.

Sussex is incredibly beautiful at all times of the year, but perhaps none more so than in springtime’s glory when our spirits need lifting after winter’s cheerless gloom.

If nothing else, in these anxious times, let’s enjoy these quiet moments and 
be thankful we have nature 
all around us to help us through.