At Last a Sign of Spring

Is it spring at last?

As each day passes the sun rises and sets a little higher above the hills and suddenly the valley is not in darkness. We see sunlight once more. Sun greets me in the morning now, as I watch Millie race round the garden before her breakfast. Birds sing. Indeed, they seem to be shouting for joy as they crowd the bird feeder. A pair of pheasants potter down for an early snack, hooting quietly as they clear the fallen seeds on the grass below. Hordes of fat pigeons patrol the garden.  A long bleak winter begins to drift away behind us.

And, after this long, lonely extraordinary year, we are told lockdown restrictions will gradually be lifted too. We will soon be allowed to see our friends and family again, travel a little further afield, eventually even have our hair cut! 

We will open our garden once more in June for the NGS to raise money for the nursing charities who have worked so very hard for us all over the last difficult months.

So as March marches onward, cherry trees are bursting into blossom, buds are swelling and the grass is starting to grow again. Fading snowdrops are replaced by a carpet of primroses. Camellias defy the frost, and everywhere daffodils and hellebores nod in the breeze. Sheep, horses and donkeys graze quietly on the hill. Nature seems to know nothing of this human pandemic. Time will heal.

march garden from Paul Vincent on Vimeo.