I always love this time of year; things just feel so fresh, new, full-of-life and expectation.
Yesterday was a beautiful spring day and although the wind was very strong and quite chill, the sun was quite warm in those sheltered places.
We walked along one of the country lanes local to our house, a stroll that took us five or six miles through the countryside with hardly a motorist to be seen or heard and just the farmer’s livestock, birds and insects for company.
Blossom has broken out on the blackthorn in the hedgerows and the local bee population were making the most of it. I hope there’s a good crop of fruit this year; I want to try making some sloe vodka as an alternative to the more usual sloe gin. 
I was reminded as we walked of Disney’s cartoon version of Baloo the Bear, the character from Kipling’s The Jungle Book; did you know the name Baloo is derived from the Hindi word for "bear"? Mr. Kipling obviously knew a little more than how to make exceedingly good cakes. 
There’s a scene in the cartoon where Baloo has an itch that just has to be scratched; you know the sort of itch, the one you can’t quite reach. The itch you need help with.
In Disney’s cartoon Baloo's itch is between his shoulders and he scratches first against the trunk of a tree, then against the edge of a large rock before plucking what appears to be a coconut palm from the ground and using it as a back-scratcher...
I couldn’t help wondering if this young lady would have liked a little help with her favoured itching post. 
If only life were always so simple, we could just wend our way through Nature’s bounty doing whatever took our fancy and satisfying the urge to simply live...
