Sunday, 26 April 2009

The first cuckoo


I heard it this morning when I was hanging out my washing - the first cuckoo of the summer. I had a little 'run' around my patio because if you don't run when you hear the first cuckoo, you'll be lazy for the rest of the season! I don't want that to happen, I'd never get anything done.

I don't have a photo of a cuckoo, I'm not sure I've ever seen one, so the photo is Cuckoo-pint which is just appearing in the hedgerows now.  Its also called Lords and Ladies depending what part of the country you are from.

Enjoy the lovely summery weather.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

i didn't know that you had to run when you heard the first cuckoo... i will keep an ear out!
the weather has been lovely hasn't it?! are you able to meet up soon... things have calmed down here a litle (as much as they ever do).
have a good week and speak soon.
with love
ginny xx

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

'Run', that's a new one to me as well but may explain a lot!

I will keep my ears out for the first one I hear.

willow said...

I've been running when I first hear the cuckoo since I can remember but perhaps its not a very widespread practice!
Sometimes these sayings are very local so maybe only people from Somerset run when they hear the cuckoo. My parents who are in their mid seventies still run a few steps at he first cuckoo and my brother has been known to hear a cuckoo whilst cycling and stop his bike in order to run in case cycling doesn't count!!

Perhaps my whole family is slightly mad!

Heather L. said...

I would like to hear a cuckoo! It's interesting that the flower you pictured is called a cuckoo-pint. We have similar ones blooming in our woods but we call them jack-in-the-pulpit. i took a picture this weekend of all the wildflowers in bloom just now and hope to post it soon.

Yes, it took us some getting used to -- living in a small house in Scotland. Fortunately, everything is small-sized -- even down to 1/2 dozen eggs and 1/2 loaves of bread! :) We had about 750 square feet. At first it was just right, but once we had 3 children it was very tight (especially since the largest bedroom was an office for study). The 3 kids were in the 7.5ft square box room. Anyway, yes, our houses in America do tend to be big -- probably much bigger than they need to be. Funny enough, our house here was much cheaper to purchase than the tiny house in Airdrie (not a ritzy place!) would have been to purchase. The first house we rented on coming back was maybe about 1750 square feet and seemed huge! Now we can fit about 5 of our Airdrie houses into our current house. Obviously these American houses don't make the best environmental sense, although they work to improve that all the time. I was pleased this year that we were able to keep the thermostat 8 degrees cooler than last year! We do make good use of the space since Michael works from home and the children are schooled from home and my sister lives with us. :)

We'll always treasure our memories of our little house in Airdrie.

Jessica at Bwlchyrhyd said...

Gosh that is late -- I think I first heard the cuckoo here on 18th April this year...

walter and me said...

I didn't know that about running about either! That's what I love about blogland - the little things you learn. Willow, thanks so much for commenting encouragingly on my doodles, and it was indeed a simplistic version of echinacea. You made my day! And if you meet up with Ginny soon, please give her a hug from me.
Diana x