Spring thaw

& determined gardening

This quote landed in my email box last week via Austin Kleon’s newsletter.  I read it and instantly felt a connection.  The words, like all good quote do, captured exactly what I was feeling, with the last line, “…thawing back to life..”, resonating with me the most. I feel both the garden and myself are coming back to life after the hibernation of winter.  The garden seems to be growing before my eyes, offering a special spring green that I love.  Everything feels new and fresh. Bees are reappearing in the garden, working hard to build nests and hives.  Birds strut confidentially behind me as I work tidying up a flower bed.  They toss soil over in the hunt for insects and the like.  On a sunny day the garden is such a magical place to be.

The weather it seems, is still doing a merry dance. One minute sunny,  the next rain. I arrange to finish work early on Friday to take advantage of the predicted sunny weather as over the weekend rain clouds loom. I have made plans in my head for what I want to achieve in October and I am determined to finish creating a flower bed under the orchard. Last year I collected plants in pots and not sure where to put them they seem to collect around the base of apple trees. As the plants grew and flowered,  I loved how they looked in this part of the garden, so I made it a project this year to replicate the design, this time with plants in the soil. With the rain the week before, I have found that it has been super easy to remove weeds and grass. Come the end of Friday, I have achieved my goal - the new gardening space is cleared.

Saturday,  despite the earlier in week forecast is not covered in rain clouds but is instead spectacular.  I go for a walk with a friend in the botanical gardens which was such tonic for the soul. It was marvellous to see people out making the most of the sun and like my own garden the botanical garden is turning into a space of lushness and beauty.  Before our walk , I spend time potting up seedlings in the quiet wake of the morning. It was very still in the garden, birds slowly waking, dogs snuffling about. The light was soft and it felt a pleasure to just stand and observe movement of bees in the garden as the day starts. Upon my return after a quick lunch it was back into the garden. I was determined to plant as much as I could.  After a good couple of hours and some discussions with pup about where he can and cannot walk, (he is not committed to these proposed suggestions), I had planted out the bed I worked on yesterday. It gave me great satisfaction to collapse on the sofa with dirt covering my feet knowing my work was done.

Late Saturday the weather changed and  Sunday  I woke to grey skies and a drop in temperature.  The complete opposite to Saturday, such is spring.   I continued on my theme of determined gardening which seemed to make up the narrative of the weekend.  Wrapped up in coat and hat, ignoring the rain, I continued to prick out the cosmos and cornflower seedlings, then planted up a few things before retreating inside. So what does all this recounting of what I have done in the garden have to do with the quote at the top of the page?  It is linked to what I do once I have done all this  determined garden work.   Once hands are washed I pick up my camera and find the stories I want to capture that I see as I garden. The hidden lily of the valley, the newly flowering white lilac, the view of the garden from a different angle.  The garden is abundant with new growth as am I as I capture all that is around me.   This is my thawing of spring.  I understand now after many years of trying to do everything at once that all I need to do is capture what is around me. Autumn and winter will be the time of reflection. These months will see me create hopefully new art based on what the garden shared with me this season. This quote, it gave me the exhale I needed. It gave me the breathe that has allowed me to just enjoy spring and its many weathers.