Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Understandable English Podcast. My name is Oliver, and today we will be talking about one of my favorite 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 Flyers 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 Flyers bloom, so Flyers bloom and this verb so blooming or to bloom is when Flyers open up and they start to show their colors 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 any more, so it's a time of renewal. So things starting new and 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 Sprite. What does sprouting mean? What is to Sprite 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 sprites, 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 and this is so Pollen is a fine powder like a very fine dust, a small small dust that is made by plow by flowers and this helps them to reproduce. So to to make more flowers some people have allergies to pollen and it can make them sneeze, A Choo 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 Flyers. 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 colourful 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 sounds 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 favorite 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 springing some cheese, some wine or lemonade, 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. 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. 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. Whoever 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 and I will see you in the next episode. Goodbye.