A blaze of yellow
When spring comes I want to be back in Rutland, driving though the country lanes and seeing the shock of yellow in the fields as the rapeseed flowers bob about in the wind. It’s such an evocative image for me. It reminds me of my family and takes me back to my childhood. One of my mum’s favourite pictures is of me in the middle of a bright yellow rapeseed field. It was part of a photoshoot that I did for her fashion business. I was a teenager and I think I look like a pudgy little thing, but mum loves it. The sights and smells of the rapeseed fields
bring back so many happy memories.
Julia Bradbury

A host of golden daffodils
One of the joys of living in the countryside is that the changes of season are so recognisable.
I love the rich ochres and yellows of autumn, and even the eerie silhouettes of bare and windswept trees against a brooding winter sky have their charm. But, if I’m honest, by February I’ve had enough and spring can’t come soon enough.
For me, the transformation of the landscape around my garden in the Cambrian Mountains is the most dramatic, heralded by the first green shoots of daffodils. They were the first things I planted here when I moved to our Ceredigion home, and like loyal friends they appear year after year, more abundant and colourful than ever before. They are everywhere I look around the village and in the steep banks and hedgerows beyond, with huge swathes cloaking the farm gateways. That’s why I love them. You don’t have to seek them out because they dominate the land, bringing a smile to all of us, whether you’re a gardener or not.
Jules Hudson

Home comforts
Spring, like Christmas, always makes me think of home. We bought our farm when I was about 10, and from that point on you couldn’t help but notice the seasons going by. There are 20 acres of ancient woodland around the farm and it’s a carpet of bluebells at this time of the year. I still try to get there at least once every spring. As there are no public footpaths it’s just you and nature.
The thing about Durham at this time of year is that it’s so varied. If, like me, you love woodland, Hamsterley Forest is just incredible, a real oasis of both broadleaves and conifers.
In fact, it may sound odd, but I’d choose anywhere along the nearby A68, stretching from Darlington up to Scotland, as my spring hotspot. If you want to get specific, there’s a lay-by about 3 miles from the Darlington turn-off from the A1. Park up there, have a cup of tea and look down, because you could travel the world and you wouldn’t see a better view than that.
Matt Baker

Messing about on the  river
There’s something very exciting about seeing the British countryside from a boat. You get a completely different outlook. When I was student, spring meant messing around on the water, specifically the beautiful River Avon, just outside of Bath.
When I moved to the city as a student everyone I knew was heading off to chain pubs and parties. Being a bit of a geek that’s not really my deal, so I tried to find things to do in the surrounding countryside. Hidden away in the middle of a housing estate was an old Victorian rowing station that rented out skiffs, punts and canoes for something like £9 a day. I couldn’t believe my luck.
Because Bath is such a small city, within 10 or 20 minutes I would be out in the middle of nowhere, looking at and foraging some really exciting plants. The wild garlic smelled amazing and early in the year you could find the flowers of the hawthorn, which has traditionally been used for food. It was great to moor up at Bathampton Mill at the end of the day with a bag full from foraging.
James Wong

Fields of Dreams
I’ve been visiting the Isle of Tiree, the most westerly island of the Inner Hebrides, since I was born. It’s my favourite Easter retreat. As the days stretch out, you can see Tiree coming to life. By now you can see the full effects of the big winter gales which have churned up the beaches, revealing stones and pebbles that had been hidden beneath the fine shell sand. The streams that run from the lochs inland to the shore change direction, while vetches, clovers, yellow rattle and orchids bloom on the machair to create a carpet of flowers. By late May it’s a riot of colour.
This is also the time when you start to hear the corncrake. Birds are a massive part of Tiree in the spring as lapwings, skylarks, redshanks and oystercatchers take to the air, joined by bumblebees and tortoiseshell butterflies. It’s heaven.
Katie Knapman

Leaping lambs
Sheep are integral to the whole being of the Cotswolds. The word ‘cot’ means sheep enclosure and a ‘wold’ is a rolling hill. In the Middle Ages, 75 percent of the nation’s wealth was created from wool, while all the churches and manor houses in the Cotswolds were built off the back of the wool trade. The wool of the Cotswold Lion sheep was known as the golden fleece, as much for the fact that it was worth its weight in gold as because of its colour.
Today I still breed the Cotswold Lion and lambing time is crucial. But spring is about more than just lambs. For me it’s the new life of the farm, the piglets, chicks and calves. Rolling Cotswold hills, beautiful stone walls and sheep with lambs afoot – what sums up spring more than that? As corny as it may sound, my perfect moment is driving a flock of ewes and lambs across our meadows with my dogs.
Adam Henson

Swallow Show
I’m lucky because I often get to see the first bursts of spring several times a year. I’ve filmed blossoms and buds appearing in Cornwall and weeks later watched the same thing happening in northern Scotland.
This year, because of the winter cold snaps, spring seems a little late where I live in the rolling countryside of north Oxfordshire. In other words, it is back to where it was a decade or so ago, before all those mild winters.
My garden looks on to a water meadow and a small wood, so it’s a sure sign of spring when I can’t see the sheep on the low hill behind because new leaves block the view. For me, a highlight is the return of our swallows and house martins. A perfect end to a late-spring day is to sit in the garden and watch them perform their amazing aerobatics.
John Craven

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN ISSUE 20 OF COUNTRYFILE MAGAZINE.
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