Spring is on its way (just about)

I've been watching the verge under the hedgerow over the road very carefully in the hope that the daffodils and crocuses we planted last back end would begin to show. However, the weather's not been great - it's been a very damp February...

... and everything's been a bit bleak

not to say soaking wet....

But now, as we move into March, the crocuses are showing and the Daffodils are up and looking strong.

Around the remaining Elm saplings, they're looking good. (The boys who broke at least one of the Elm saplings - cost £250 each - were caught and we're looking for restorative justice. This probably means getting their parents to pay up.)

Under the wall by the care home, where it's a bit more sheltered, the dwarf daffodils are up and open...

... and, gloriously, so are the irises - perhaps my all-time favourite.

Looks like Spring is finally here. Can't wait for my retirement date at the end of May and a Summer of cricket, glass-cutting and the garden. Aaaaaah!

A full season

So, it's like this: The Lord Mayor's Charity Appeal http://www.justgiving.com/Lord-Mayor-Leicester (Leicester Children's Holiday Centre (Mablethorpe)) is peaking, the School of Museum Studies is running headlong towards its international conference (Narrative Space) http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/ with the opening of our new building, Peter Greenaway (A Zed & Two Noughts, Drowning By Numbers, Prospero's Books, The Belly of an Architect, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Love, The Draughtsman's Contract, The Pillow Book and many, many more - but also The Last Supper installation in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Venice and Le Nozze di Cana - The Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese at the Palladian Refectory on the San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice) giving the keynote speech, then... sudenly, Spring starts to take over.

I know it's Spring because my Summer house/studio is filling up with pricked out plants and I can hardly get to the glass to finish my latest stained glass window.

Meanwhile, the cricket season is about to start, though it's freezing cold, and it's time to plan our repeat visit to Tournemire, near Roquefort.


Looks like it's going to be a full season.

Winter into Spring(?), Irises and Stained Glass

It's good to see the tulips coming up without their coating of snow, but the temperature is still dropping below zero at night (and sometimes during the day) so we haven't managed any gardening yet.

I've gone back into the studio to make a start on the new window I'm putting in to replace my first effort in the dining room. I liked the new kitchen window so much, and thought the design was so much better than the dining room, window that I've decided to replicate it and match the two windows at each end of the room.

I managed to get a good clean design in spite of the fact that I almost destroyed the old design and the new frame is bigger than the kitchen window. I've simply recreated the window design and added a border all round which will be in clear iridescent water glass.

I had to buy new supplies from Tempsford and have made a good start due to the fact that Marea's got involved in a TV serial that's on every evening for a week (not my kind of stuff).

Meanwhile, the weather continues to be strange, swinging between warmsunny days, dense fog and deep frost.

Molly the spaniel doesn't like fog. She always seems ill at ease. I suppose it's because she can't see what's coming. She's a very nervous dog at the best of times, though incredibly friendly.

I think she's a bit agoraphobic - she pesters to go out, but whenever we go for a walk, she lags behind on the way out and sometimes stops and looks at me as if to say "Are you really going that far? Do we usually go down here?". Then, when I say "Home!", she's off and is ahead of me all the way.

I sort of remember selecting these Irises, last back end, and thinking "They'll look good in the pots with the crocuses". They're a bit odd, very low and rather ethereal, but quite pretty.

The piece of land opposite is being developed as a car park for the Baptitst Church. I don't know whether to be sad that we're losing a rather wild piece of land with lots of blackberries, etc., or to be pleased that they are doing something to improvethe impossible parking situation on Sunday mornings and almost every evening (youth club, Girl Guides, etc., etc.)

I'm hoping it doesn't ruin the entrance to the village.

Primavera (first draft)

Primavera

For once not mocked by cloud or Mother Nature

A village dozes in the warmth of Spring

Fusty rooms breathe through half open windows

Laburnums bring the pollen-heavy bees

And four-by-fours glide darkly down the road

Allotments burst with organic passion

The field is pocked with starlings from the trees

And rabbits play around the foxes' den

Dandelions gone, the buttercups succeed

And Blackthorn sloes begin their gentle set

Inside their houses villagers mistake comfort for safety, other plans aside

Beauty for soul...

At village end, earth movers wait,
Bindweed might be a better consummation

(Yes, I know it needs a lot of work!)

Signs of Spring - signs of hope?

While I've been languishing, unable to do serious work, the car washers are out getting ready for the better weather. Personally, I don't believe in car washing - seems to me to be something better paid for. I suppose it's my usual reaction against convention, against suburbanism, against conformity. Anyway, I suppose it's a harbinger of Spring.

The crocuses are another; bright and cheerful in the courtyard beds, taking over the responsibility for colour from the Winter flowering pansies.

And as a sign of hope, we've bought some new hardy Hibiscus (dubbed NEWBiscus by the suppliers because they are Winter hardy). We'll see!

In the allotments, the first bonfire has erupted. A number of villagers were out digging, though they were well wrapped up; it's not a warm as it looks.

Feels good to be back on the blog. Back to work tomorrow. I hope I can cope - the infection seems to be taking a long time to clear up.