I check the calendar to see if the date matches the time of year for wind to hit the garden and it does. The spring equinox is the 23rd of this month and the days leading up to it are always in my mind associated with wind The house kindly provides solid shelter against the bluster outside. From where I stand I watch the garden swirl and spin much like the sea. Plants roll like waves. It evens sounds like waves crashing on a beach. I give a cursory glance to spy any damage and things, while looking slightly flustered, are as they should be. I even hear a bird optimistically chirping but I suspect most of the birds that call my garden home are like me, nestled somewhere, taking shelter from the wind.
I watch the plum blossom sway. It only started flowering a week ago and already there is more green leaves than blossom blooms. I believe it might be it’s off year for fruiting or else the pigeons have nibbled more than I thought or maybe there is something else happening that is too subtle for human awareness. There are still popcorn like masses of flowers on the tops of the tree, to high up for me to photography. Realising this makes me feel a bit mournful - it will be another year before they will be back and I can photograph them. Already the season feels like it is moving to fast and I am reminded that I need to pay attention if I want to take photos of the stories of the garden but then I think that maybe this the story of the garden this. A quick blast of things coming and going.
Speaking of stories of the garden, I am still pottering away with the clean up of my photo archive and it has made me realise that I have many little stories from over the years of my garden. I am trying to figure out how I can share them beyond here and Instragram. I want to find a way to invite people to be able to hold them in their hands. It feels timely that the virtual because the tangible and I feel like I want to create a new way to connect. I want to figure out a way to send some kindness out in the form an image. It is still a work in progress, taking shape and form, but I am kinda excited by it. Sometimes you just need to share a crumb of an idea to make you commit to it.
As I watch the swirl outside in the garden, I am glad despite my rather aching body that I have, that I spent a good couple of hours in the garden yesterday. The green waste bin was filled, the worm farm emptied, more seed trays where started (I have really run out of room). The day itself was warm and inviting - perhaps unpredictably so and it was hinting at the cold snap that was settled in as I went to sleep to the sound of a soil rain on the roof. It was a comforting sound to hear because I think we need some rain. I had to water my pots in plants earlier in the week. I wonder how long the wind will last and then I reach for a book and think that perhaps a day inside won’t be a bad thing. Then I count the days until the equinox. 11 days to go.