The first drop of rain hits my camera lens as I attempt to take a shot. It has been a quick flit around the garden with the camera as they tend to be at the moment. I need to settle in to taking photos, give it some time but I don’t seem to have the patience. I know as the garden starts to fill with spring then summer growth that the 5 minutes dash will become longer as I have more and more to photography. I am excited about the coming season, knowing it will be different from last year. New plants have been added to the garden and what was already established has a years growth. I love that things are never the same as the year before. I think how annuals always add something different and I make a note to self to order some cosmos seeds. For me they always add some wistful magic to the garden. After a few more photos I head inside. It is the season of dancing skies, one minute vivid blue the next moody grey. It seems to be shifting more to the later and the predicted cold snap seems to be moving through. On this first week of spring I dare to wonder, will this cold snap be the last for the year?
As I trudge up the steps to the front door I notice the scattering of plants collecting by the bottom of the steps. Cell packs of delphiniums picked up in the weekend. A delicious order of hollyhocks, a deep orange ranuncs that I am hoping will be flowering in time for my macro photography course that will start online later this month (details here) and some silene uniflora all from Emerden. A stoic looking white buddleia also waits for it’s new home. Elsewhere in the garden there are more pots - the many alluim bulbs I have sprouted over the winter and the poppies I started in autumn are itching for more space than their pots provide. I am holding my nerve to plant them out and the increasing spits of rain remind me that I am wise to do so. They will keep as they are for the moment. I feel a twitch of maturity, as I am sure in seasons past I would have planted them all on the first weekend of warmth.
I can feel the garden starting to stretch and yawn and wake from its winter slumber. A glance out the window reveals an increasing presence of fresh green which is a combination of the new growth of the many perennials that make up my garden but also the work I have been doing of tidying up. Parts of the garden almost look civilised and we will hopefully tick off the first of my landscaping jobs in the garden. Dog proofing fence number 2 which will stop the dogs from chatting with the neighbors and provide me with a space to grow a climber of sorts. I am not sure what it will be but feel certain a rose would work well. I have desires to finish off projects started last summer that were never finished and plan a long weekend in a few weeks time where I can devote time to getting the spring tidy up completed. I want a nook for lazing in on summer days and evenings with a pile of pillows and a pile of dogs. We talk of designs and chuckle at the idea that no doubt this newly created space will be most used by senior Airedale. He is ageing in a very Airedale and graceful sleepy way often frequenting sunny corners especially ones with a cushion or two.
Once inside I flick through the photos I took. The lawn of daffodils are starting to flourish and I love the mass vibrancy of them. I note how a small path in the grass has been created. A trail embedded by dog paws as they race around the garden. I kinda like how it has naturally formed. I also check my trays of seedlings. I started a round of sweet peas and pricked out the first of the dahlia seeds that have sprouted. Dahlia seeds are such a fun thing to grow as you never know what you will get. It is a real lucky dip. I’m keen to try my luck with a Susie’s Mix which I am sure will be gorgeous. Small poppy seedlings are emerging as too are foxgloves and hollyhocks and I wonder about space and where to put them all as they grown, then forget it about and simply marvel in the wonder that is a seed that emerges. As I study my seedlings I realise the day has shifted gears again and it is now full sun, the only hint of the shower is the odd tear stain of rain on the window. The dance of spring skies continues.