Bridport, Dorset: Dormant buds formed at the end of last summer are responding to an alchemy of hormones, stored sugars and the gradual lightening of days

Leafless trees are thickening and blurring, their twigs swelling. Wooded hill-lines that a month ago showed sharp outlines against the sky have become smudged with a smoke of developing buds.

This is the first, early stage of awakening, a slow, subtle infill that comes with the return of birdsong and the gradual lightening of days. Dormant buds formed at the end of last summer are responding to an alchemy of hormones, stored sugars and the beginning of the Earth’s tilt twards the south.