The Big, Beautiful April Poem
Asparagus, bluebells, a farewell to Orion, and peeper jingling time...at last
Well what a beauty of a month that was. All month long you have been sending me your little snippets of seasonal things you have noticed and done, and you have really outdone yourselves. The warming spring air brings out the poets in you. It has been a joy reading back through and I hope you will enjoy my condensed version, edited to my liking and then rendered in fancy italics to show that it is, actually, a POEM. Of sorts.
Before we launch into it…this is a lot of work and so I must use this space to do the tiniest bit of advertising. I have a new book out next week! A compilation of almanac recipes and festivals, and it’s a beauty. Have a look.
Let’s go:
Goldfinches twittering overhead and the sound of an ice cream van at school finishing time
Under the light of a radiant sky, silhouettes of trees pattern a path before us, winding its way through the woods, then meeting with the river we walk together by its side, forget -me -nots everywhere
Sandals on!
The sound of birdsong early in the morning in a backyard right in the centre of Berlin
Snake’s head fritillaries: deep pink chequered flowers and some beautiful cream ones
Choosing new routes through the neighborhood to catch the magnolias and cherries
A beautiful spotted woodpecker on the nuts this morning
Out on the hill after work. No head torch needed. Skylarks for company
Cowslips, primroses and grape hyacinth. My 16-year old dog wants to be outside
The temperature dropping dramatically along with the sun, little bats swooping against a deep orange sunset
The swans claiming their territory over the geese
All the purple: lilacs, irises, tulips
Not wearing layers of clothes all day every day, enjoying that lightness
Days of blue sky, sunshine and gardening
Took my book outside to get a few minutes of sun but it was hard to focus with the buzz of a hummingbird moving between the scarlet sage flowers and cherry blossoms
A bunch of rainbow tulips as a belated Mother’s Day bouquet
Blossom falling and floating in the gentle breeze and filling me with nostalgia as in my childhood I loved to stand underneath a cherry blossom tree and feel like I was in a snow globe
Green shoots and leaves on trees and shrubs in the garden
The sandmartins are back! My favourite day of spring
Our crocuses finally blooming and my 3 year old shouting “mama! They’re big now!” when she notices their sunny middles
Frosty cold mornings, cloudless blue skies, late afternoon sun with some real heat in it and light nights
That feeling of the sun on your back as you bend over planting, and huge drifts of cherry blossom petals on the gravel, like pink snow
The blackthorn blossom like large white pillows amongst the still sparse hedgerows, the chalk stream nearly bursting it's banks, it's cold crystal clear waters flowing fast
We’re on a big rail trip, seeing spring further south. Great crested grebes doing a mating dance in Zurich, swifts in Milan and Naples, swallows in Pompei
The Holly King is still battling the Oak King for the seasons: frosty mornings and chilly nights with beautiful clear starlit skies, Orion and his winter companions slowly sinking out of sight... the sun warming the land, teasing it back into life
The almost full moon suspended in a clear blue sky. Blossom spreading across the trees
Fields of yellow oil seed rape. My eyes are streaming with hayfever
Orange tip butterflies, so flitty flitty
ASPARAGUS! Grown locally, from our nearby greengrocer
It’s all about the leaves, fresh and green. Young beech leaves put to steep in gin for Beech Leaf Noyeau
Walking along the river at the back of my house picking wild garlic to add to pasta when I get home
The nightingales are back!
A woodland walk amongst the bluebell carpet, their nodding flowers in a race to open with the lime green canopy above. Wild garlic gathered from beside the secret stream
Adders unfurling in the sunshine
Avoiding my usual canal walk as the geese are too hissy protecting their nests
First backpacking trip of the year, this time a very sunny Scotland - boiling hot afternoons and freezing nights. Camping by abandoned houses and sandy beaches to be kept awake by capercaillies and pine martens
Our fruit trees are beautifully adorned with their frothy blossoms and my perennials are emerging almost hourly
The waxing moon rising above the blossoming Amelanchier tree in my garden, as I finally came indoors after a satisfying day weeding, pruning and making an end-of-winter bonfire in my garden
Impossibly blue skies and pompoms of pink and white blossom on trees
Watching Mars line up with the Gemini twin stars to form an asterism I call 'the triplets'
I love when April feels 'right' It feels like so long since we've had an April like this (the last time was 2020, and we all know what happened then!)
Lambs…bleating, popcorning, snoozing
Winter is reluctant to leave Michigan, spring is hesitant to arrive. Green grass was blanketed with new snowfall this week. Plucky daffodils persevere
Opening and closing the greenhouse door daily
Woodpecker rat-a-tat-tat is my wake up call
First graduates wearing blue and gold sashes over their white dresses lining up to take pictures in front of the University sign at the entrance of the campus
Turning up the heating on my drive into work each morning and turning on the a/c for my drive home
Speckled Wood butterfly basking on the ivy leaves in the sun
Glorious blue pools of bluebells everywhere
White storks in Southern Germany. Amazing magnolia bloom everywhere
The (delicious) hop shoots are up, and the nightingales are back, in Surrey
Tadpoles in the pond, no longer encased in jelly. Tiny commas wriggling on fallen leaves
A single, lonely swift / swallow flying high above the fields. Too fast to identify which, but a soaring black shape with forked tail high above
Making wild garlic pesto & enjoying the taste of fresh nettle tea
Fields of yellow rape, hedgerows bursting with white blossom, in the park the trees are still covered in masses of pink blossom, and the sky is a beautiful blue. It is so nice to see colour everywhere instead of grey and darkness
Three tiny baby moorhens like miniature carbon copies of their parents
The air absolutely full of the scent of orange blossom from the trees lining a very ordinary road in southern Italy
A first forest fire and the river Rhine is at a record low level
Picking hot, blackened bits of halloumi off the first barbecue of the year
Baby blackbirds in the garden, following the adult around to be fed, and a rabble of robin chicks hopping about
50 shades of green unfurling, and birdsong a plenty
There are dandelions everywhere and bees in the white bells of three cornered leek
Trimmed the scruffy old fern fronds back to find new ones waiting, curled up, in their own brown woolly coats
Carpets of wildflowers, bluebells windflowers blossom and alive with birdsong
Pretty white blackthorn blossom everywhere
A parade of the tiniest mallard ducklings following mum to water
The Callery Pear trees are in bloom all over New York City, their puffy white blossoms competing with their more popular cherry pink sisters
The first buckets of strawberries at my favorite farm stand
Finally rain! After weeks of dry weather our pond is replenished and the newts have been swimming around joyfully
Picking rocks from the farm fields prior to spring planting
Five inches of snow, a profusion of snowmen by the afternoon and by Sunday afternoon the snowmen were standing in soft green grass, some with nearby daffodils
A baby fox very inquisitively watching a magpie forage for food on my neighbours grass
My lilac bush already in bloom, filling the air with heady perfume
Planting my potatoes on Good Friday
Bluebells in the hedgerows just start to burst into flower, frothy white stitch wort and the soaring sound of skylarks
Half a tiny pale blue eggshell in the middle of the path by the park
Unfurling chestnut leaves as tender as lettuce
A woodpecker drilling, a pheasant screeching, an owl hooting, the air filled with lyrical birdsong, a bumble bee buzzing, a hare hopping, a curlew calling…
Foraging wild garlic, nettles and ground elder to make pesto for a dinner by the firelight in a friend’s old farmhouse by the river
The heart stopping beauty of bluebell filled woodlands - a portal to meet ghosts of yourself in previous Springs, not to mention the generations who have gone before
My mum calls this part of spring 'the frothy season'. I sat out in the back garden at half eleven last night and looked ap at apple blossom and the big bear constellation behind it, whilst I listened to a nightingale sing
Rain and then sunshine, lunch in the garden and washing on the line
Dandelion clocks sprouting everywhere
Peak spring bloom here with meadows of orange poppies, purple lupine, pastel milkmaids, and grasses so tall that the wind can be seen blowing through in waves
Morning Glory seedlings on an indoor window sill racing up their supports, a new coil of their stems and leaf twins every day
Playful daisies and buttercups carrying memories of childhood games
The meadow of cowslips, just a field of little yellow flowers with an awakening wood as a backdrop
Wisteria covering the wall of a stately home, tulips reaching for the sky, and a lawn full of daisies
A glimpse of a bat as I draw the curtain
Catching the sounds of several returning friends in the sky...the sandhill cranes, trumpeter swans and Canadian geese
The deciduous trees are puffy green with new leaves the size of a mouse's ear which tells the gardener planting time is almost here
Frothy hedges, full of hawthorn blossom, horse chestnut, cow parsley and the odd elderflower appearing and in the fields thousands of beautiful yellow dandelions
I was finally ready to call it this week... Peak cherry blossom season in Edinburgh!
My roses are so happy, and I’m embracing their beauty before the struggle of heat and humidity (southern US) come to pass
Lying in the hammock in the garden, scent of lilac wafting over, and the whirr of the sparrows wings as they land on the birdfeeder
Joy found in the open meadow at RHS Bridgewater, seeing the thousands of dandelions that had been left to flower instead of neatly removed. It felt like a huge shift
The apple blossom is already confetti on the lawn, the cow parsley has reached head height and the bluebells are spectacular
Golden hour at 7.45pm
Pembrokeshire. Have been worried about the swallows and then three suddenly appeared in the field just outside my chum’s house. A feeling of instant calm knowing some of them have made it back
I know spring has finally sprung when the peepers jingle all night
That last one is my favourite. Absolutely no idea if Frances is just messing with us but…I choose to simply believe, rather than give this even the most cursory google. Yes! It’s peeper jingling time!
And that’s it. What a beauty…and here comes gorgeous MAY! Let’s do it all again.
Lovely! So much variety in this one.
I love reading this at the end of each month. It really highlights how the year turns.