You, revealed to me the wonder of four seasons.
You, brought me my dear friends.
You, made me healthier and stronger.
I was full of joy when I came.
I am full of sweet memory when I am leaving.

 My middle school and university classmate was found to have a brain cancer. A shocking news to me and her friends.  Every time I read her blog, I could not help feeling uncomfortable, although she always smiled in the photos posted there.

Living each day is a miracle. I feel lucky I am now living and studying in the U.K. and can be so close to the nature. I met many nice people here.

Look at the sky - life is a miracle.

Look at the roadside - life is a miracle. In summer, Cow Parsley has turned the bare ground to white flower bed.

With summer coming, Daisy and Buttercup are everywhere. Their bright white and yellow colors are telling us they should not be ignored. Do not forget me, said the Forget-me-not - blue flowers in blossom.

Daisy:

Buttercup:

Forget-me-not:

There are more and more, names known (yellow flowers below are Laburnum and violet flowers below are Wisteria) or unknown to me. Life is a miracle. Living each day is a miracle.

In last week’s visit to Buxton Heath, I saw the lilies of the valley - a patch of flowers. When I was told they were the lilies of the valley, I was very surprised, not at their outlook of the flowers, but at their existence - there is indeed such thing called lily of the valley in this world!

I learnt about the lily of the valley when I was at the middle school. For a few times a week, in the morning and before the start of the class, there was a gathering in the school. The speakers (sometimes they were the headmistress, the teachers, the reverends or the outside guests) delivered a speech at these gatherings. As my school was a Christian school, usually we would be asked to sing hymns at the start of such gatherings.

Lily of the Valley is the title of one of the familiar hymns I sang so often in the middle school. I always remember the lyrics “He is the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star”.

Christianity has so much influence in my life as I had listened to the Christian preaches for more than ten years, whether in the middle school or in the church. Some Christian teachings have become mottoes of my life, for example, we should not find the sand in people’s eyes but cannot find the stone in our own; we should not judge peoples; today’s worries are enough for today and we should not worry about tomorrow. When I run, I always remember one of the Bible’s saying “run towards the pole (target)”.

Most hymns have very beautiful melodies and meaningful lyrics. The Lily of the Valley is no exception (part of its lyrics are copied below). 

“I have found a friend in Jesus,
he’s everything to me,
he’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;
the Lily of the Valley, in him alone I see
all I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.
In sorrow he’s my comfort, in trouble he’s my stay,
he tells me every care on him to roll.

He’s the Lily of the Valley,
the bright and Morning Star,
he’s the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.”

The meaning of this flower is “You will find Happiness.” 

The local British people call the dandalion a weed. But in my eyes, they are one of the amazing flowers in this world - when other flowers are still sleeping, their bright yellow flowers are already attracting the world in spring. They are not afraid of wind and rain. Even though people tread on them, no one can stop their strong life. Soon they spread over the field.

When the flowers die, they turn into white balls of filaments. Under a breeze, the filaments fly away like parachutes spreading their seeds.

The common horse chestnut trees look like Christmas trees hung with candle-like clusters of white flowers, showy and beautiful. They flower in late spring and their fruits mature in September and October releasing shiny brown seeds (which look no different from the edible sweet chestnuts but are poisonous to human).

Before the flowers mature and turn white, they are yellow but equally attractive.  

I remember last November, I saw many children pick up the chestnuts fallen from these trees. I thought they were edible and followed the same. I picked more than 50 chestnuts and passed them to my friend for cooking but my friend told me they were too bitter to eat. (Thank god they were bitter otherwise my friend and I would be poisoned!) I believe the children collected these chestnuts for fun, but not for cooking.

I live in the Village - one of the student hall residences of the UEA. Why is it called the Village? After the walk behind the Village today, I believe I have found the answer.

Life is amazing! Outside my window, there is a tree. It is interesting and amazing to see it from full growth in summer, to bareness in winter, and then freshly new green leaves in spring. The speed of growth is so fast that three days ago I could still see the church behind it, but now its new leaves have completely blocked the view of the church (see the contrast of the two pictures on the left below with the other two on the right below). Chance will be missed if we do not grasp it.

Now I know spring can be like autumn – trees displaying different colors, red, yellow, light green, fresh green, dark green, colorful and attractive.

Sometimes, the sky is blue and dotted with cotton-like clouds, so cute and interesting.

Running on a grassland covered with bright yellow dandelion flowers is like a dream and romantic! Running and at the same time watching the clouds moving and converging in the sky is so enjoyable!

Nature always surprises me. Two days ago I was still running on a grassland covered with yellow flowers (dandelion flowers). Today, the grassland was blanketed with white dots (white dandelion clocks - globe of white fine filaments formed when the dandelion flowers matures). What a beautiful and sudden change!

I was surprised to find that although I have been living in the campus of the UEA for half year, there were still places around the campus which I had not yet discovered.

I started the walk from the campus, passing by some of the beautiful student residence halls. It was the spring time and new buds started to appear on the trees. New life and new hope to the world!

Then I found a horse farm (the horse in the bottom right most picture had been standing still for more than five minutes - a Trojan horse!).

I went further and discovered the River Yare valley. It has its own beauty in spring.

I have talked about the fox I found in the campus. Besides fox, I also found many rabbits and squirrels in or around the campus of the UEA. However, they were very clever and sensitive. Whenever I tried to go close to them, they would run away (even though I was more than three metres away from them) and disappear in a second. So the pictures and videos below did not come easily.

Squirrel

Squirrel in the Earlham Park near the campus.

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Rabbits 

Rabbits near the Norfolk Terrace in the campus.

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Three weeks ago, I have mentioned about the first sign of spring - the flowering of Snowdrop and Winter Aconite. When I passed the same place of their flowering two days ago, I noticed they were dying out. However, more exciting spring flowers have come - Daffodil, Crocus and Blackthorn! They are the first flowers to bloom in spring. When I found them, I was crazy about them, not only for their beauty, but also for the liveliness they are bringing to this world. They are pronouncing - spring has come! (All pictures below were taken around my hall residence.)

While I was immersed in picking what flowers to shoot and what angles to shoot. I suddenly heard “Hello”. I turned back and found a passer-by standing at the road side. She was smiling, “My friend yesterday passed by here and also loved the flowers. Do you want me to take a picture for you?” Her kind offer came a bit of sudden. Yeah, why not? I thanked her.

I continued to shoot the flowers. After some time, I heard someone calling my name. I looked back. Oh, here came a good friend of mine who lived in the same hall residence as me (I knew him because one day I was carrying loads of food returning from the weekly big supermarket shopping, he offered help to me). His was smiling cheerfully. “When I came along, I saw from a distance someone was taking pictures, and I thought it must be you,” he said. “Yeah, you knew me so well. Only me who have so much time to do such meaningless things.” (It was not the first time he found me shooting pictures in the streets like an insane person. Last time of snowfall, while I was taking pictures in a crazy manner, he also bumped into me.)

Daffodil

All daffodils are the common name for Narcissus, which is the genus name. What are shown in the pictures are the single flower, large trumpet yellow ones, which are the most common kind of daffodils in the U.K. (there are smaller headed scented varieties like the kind the Chinese people grow as ornamental flower for the Chinese New Year, and people usually call them narcissi).

The genus name “Narcissus”, is considered to be derived, not as is often said, from the name of the classical youth who met with his death through vainly trying to embrace his image reflected in a clear stream, but from the Greek word “narkao” (to be numb), on account of the narcotic properties which the plant possesses.

The bulbs of the Daffodil, as well as every other part of the plant are powerfully emetic, and the flowers are considered slightly poisonous, and have been known to have produced dangerous effects upon children who have swallowed portions of them.

The Daffodil is very easy to grow and therefore appears everywhere, along the roadside, next to a tree, near your house. Even when other plants are still in their withered state, it has already bloomed. Its sharp yellow color always makes it stand out from the rest.

Crocus

Crocus is one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. The color of their flowers varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant.

Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis.

Blackthorn

The Blackthorn (species name is Prunus spinosa) is a large shrub or a small tree of the genus Prunus (which is a genus of trees and shrubs, including the plums, cherries, peaches, apricots and almonds). It is covered in white flowers in early spring, and is often one of the first flowering trees. 

The Japanese sakura is also under the same genus Prunus. No wonder the blossoms of Blackthorn look so much like sakura.

Weeping Willow

The weeping willow trees do not display beautiful flowers, but they are one of the first deciduous trees (i.e. they lose all of their foliage for part of the year) which will grow new leaves. When looking close to their branch, I found a lot of new buds (see the right most picture below).