Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast.
My name is Oliver, and today we will be talking about one of my favourite times of the year, spring.
Spring is coming quickly, it's coming fast.
And winter here is almost over.
Actually, this week I was beginning to think, wow, it already feels like spring.
And to me this is such a nice feeling.
That feeling when the days are getting longer, it stays brighter for longer.
You hear the birds singing outside and you start to notice flowers blooming all around.
This season, spring, which is coming soon, is a season that is full of life.
There is life all around.
From the newborn lambs so baby sheep, to the birds and the flowers and plants.
There is so much new life in spring.
And I think it's very beautiful.
So today we are going to talk about spring and we are also going to learn some new words, phrases and sayings related to spring.
So let's discover spring together.
So, to start with, spring is a beautiful season that marks the transition, so the change from winter to summer.
During spring the weather gets warmer and plants, and also flowers, start to grow again.
So we say flowers bloom.
So flowers bloom.
And this verb so, blooming or to bloom, is when flowers open up and they start to show their colours and their beautiful petals.
That is blooming or blossoming.
We can say either.
So flowers bloom, trees get new leaves and animals come out of hibernation.
So all those animals that were sleeping during winter, they start to wake up.
And come out to gather food, to enjoy their lives.
They aren't sleeping anymore.
So it's a time of renewal.
So things starting new.
A new beginnings.
A very exciting time for nature.
So some other things you might notice in spring is that plants may begin to sprout.
To sprout.
So even vegetables, for example, can start to sprout.
What does sprouting mean?
What is to sprout, the verb?
So this is when a plant starts to grow from a seed.
A seed is what you put in the ground.
And when that seed sprouts, a plant comes from it.
So hopefully that makes sense.
Another thing that happens in spring is there is a start of pollen, particularly towards the end of spring.
So pollen is a fine powder, like a very fine dust, a small, small dust that is made by flowers and this helps them to reproduce, so to make more flowers.
Some people have allergies to pollen and it can make them sneeze, achoo or cough or rub their eyes.
I have an allergy to pollen sometimes, and usually at the end of spring and beginning of summer, my eyes get very itchy, so I want to rub my eyes with my hands.
One thing I love in spring is seeing the butterflies come out.
So a butterfly is a colorful insect that has wings and they like to fly around flowers.
So spring is a very popular time for traditions, for springtime traditions.
Spring is a time for celebrations and traditions all around the world.
In some cultures people celebrate Easter with egg hunts, so maybe chocolate eggs and also decorating eggs.
Others have festivals to welcome the arrival of spring.
And it's a time to gather with friends and family and enjoy the beauty of nature and of the season.
And what an amazing season to explore nature.
Spring is a noisy and vibrant, so very colorful and bright season.
Birds sing sweet songs and bees buzz around collecting the pollen, so that little small dust.
And the wind rustles through the trees that now have their leaves again.
Take a moment during spring to just stop and have a listen to those beautiful signs of spring and appreciate the beauty of nature coming back alive again after its winter sleep.
So Outside of nature as well, there are so many fun outdoor activities that we can start to do again in spring.
So let's have a look at some of these.
One of my favorites is to have a picnic.
So this is when you have a meal outdoors, usually in a park or garden.
So popular picnic foods includes making a sandwich or a wrap, maybe bringing some cheese, some wine or lemon, is putting it in a basket and taking it with you to a park or an outdoor locations.
Usually people bring a blanket and they put it down on the grass and they sit and have a lovely picnic.
Another popular thing to do in spring is to have a bike ride, so a bicycle ride.
Riding a bicycle to explore nature and enjoy the lovely fresh air.
And of course, very popular with my parents, they love gardening.
So getting into the garden, planting flowers, vegetables in your garden or in pots in the house.
People love spending time outdoors during spring, so if you have a garden, it's a great way to spend some time outside in the lovely new growing nature.
Hiking is also a fantastic thing to do in spring.
You can go for a walk in nature, usually on in the woods, for example, or by the sea, maybe climb some mountains if you're feeling very adventurous.
And, of course, if the day is a little bit windy, as it often can be in spring, you can do some kite flying.
So to take a kite and fly it high up in the sky and watch it fly in the wind.
So finally, what I would like us to do today is to look at some spring idioms and sayings.
So the first one that we're going to look at is spring cleaning.
So what is spring cleaning?
So this is when we clean our homes very thoroughly, so quite intensely after winter.
And this is to freshen up and declutter.
So during the winter, we spend a lot of time inside.
Maybe we have a lot more stuff after Christmas and we don't have as much fresh air in the house.
So spring cleaning is to freshen up the house for this lovely season and into the summer.
Another phrase we can say is April showers bring May flowers.
And this refers to the fact that rainy days in April will lead to beautiful flowers blooming in May.
So it's a little bit of a rhyme and people can say it on a rainy day in April and they can say April showers bring May flowers.
And it means don't worry about the rain.
It will give us beautiful flowers in May time.
And the final phrase for this week is in the springtime of life.
So this phrase refers to a youthful or early stage in someone's life, when they're full of energy and enthusiasm.
So you can say, he had many exciting projects in the springtime of his life.
So he had many exciting projects when he was young.
So there you have it, spring.
I hope you have an amazing springtime.
And I hope that spring comes very quickly for you.
I know here it feels like it is almost with us.
So I hope that you have many amazing memories from the springtime and lovely activities.
Thank you for listening.
I really, really appreciate you listening to this podcast and supporting it, whether you are listening on Spotify or on YouTube with subtitles.
I really appreciate it.
I hope that this was useful for you and have an amazing rest of your day.
I will see you in the next episode.
Goodbye.
