Cold snap

passing the shortest day

I check my phone and realise it is the 21st of June. The shortest day. I made it. Knowing this I immediately start looking for signs that the light is changing and whilst I know it is impossible but I am sure on the morning of the 22nd of June when I stroll to work just after 7.30 am, that it is lighter than it has felt the week before. I know it is not true but I still admire the cool blue sky emerging against dark black outline of naked trees. A small bubble of joy forms and I think spring is one step closer.

My garden also feels like I do, perhaps a touch optimistic. A anemone planted in mid Autumn in a pot is in flower as too are bunches of snowdrops. The delicious crimson pink hellebore is flowering away but then it has been doing that for the past month. I check other hellebore and am greeted with tiny tight buds that always look like a they are going to start talking to me with their oval pointed heads. I see buds forming on the lilac as I stroll past. Things are beginning to stir.

I have been thinking about winters and cold and what it means. I wonder about periods of time in life when we grow and when we are dormant and I think about cold stratification. Some seeds I brought are currently in the fridge next to the cheese quietly chilling, as too are the tulip bulbs (not next to the cheese they have quietly taken over half shelf elsewhere in the fridge). The process of a very cold period to start growth feels relatable as I too have felt the coolness of winter start to chill my bones and while I usually welcome the respite from doing that winter brings, this year felt different. I seemed to have stepped back a bit and sense that the sharp cool air was giving me something else. As the days unfold and the poppy seedlings by the window grow a millimeter more I wonder if the cold this year is what I needed to perhaps crack a hard shell I had unconsciously built up just from day to day living. Maybe a bit of cold is just what I need.

With much love

Mel