A walk in the park is always rewarding

I knew that there was cold weather and frost forecast, so I determined to get out and about in the park the day before its arrival.

In Pollok park, the massed clumps of snowdrops by the little house at the entrance near Pollokshaws West station are out in force and all around the park daffodils are making their way upwards – in some places six inches tall already.

Not all the trees are winter bare – many beech saplings have retained their leaves all winter and they provide welcome colour in the woods.

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Their dry, coppery leaves light up in the weak shafts of sunlight, each one like a small, delicate, metallic sculpture.

As I headed along the road with golf course to one side and woods to the other, a buzzard glided silently overhead, its dark wing tips spread like fingers.

Buzzards are now a comparatively common sight in all sorts of habitats, having recovered in the last 20 years from being critically endangered. That said, I rarely see them in Pollok park.

As I approached the park exit I became aware of a flock of eight or ten thrush-like birds ahead of me.

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They were red wings. The wash of orangey-red beneath their wings and the white line above their eyes mark them out from other thrushes or fieldfares. They settled on the grass and on branches and then flew ahead again as I go to that point where I was considered too near for comfort. As I walked the sun was on my back, but dark grey clouds ahead warned of imminent rain.

By the time I was near home it was pouring, but just before I reached my street, a rainbow appeared and I could see its full arc.

It seemed to me that the rainbow was a sign saying ‘welcome back to the outdoors!’ because I have been laid low with my customary winter cold and am only just starting to feel normal again.