Week 12
Equinox sunshine pots
Hello! Happy spring equinox! I hope you birds and singing and your blossom is fluttering.
Some actual hints of spring this week, eh? Some moments of remembering what it’s all about. Not too many, don’t get carried away there spring, you keep us on our toes…but just enough to remind us that it will happen one of these days.
This is our weekly post in which we share things we have noticed/done/eaten/baked/ smelt this week that feel particularly ‘this week’, and then at the end of the month I gather them all up into a big monthly poem.
Speaking of poems… I came across this poem this morning. I absolutely love all of Holly McNish’s poetry, and love the way she reads them too. This one is called ‘It’s People Like You, Tracy’ from her new book, Lobster, and it just made me think of so many of you on here, who create magic for other people all through the year. I admit I DON’T think I am one of those people, really, in my day to day life, or perhaps I was and now as the kids are getting older I have taken my foot off the pedal, with some relief and some sadness. I love that she acknowledges the magic and the exhaustion. Please do have a little listen to it. (It particularly put me in mind of friend of this Substack, Sue, who so often posts us such lovely poetry in the comments, and is having a bit of a hard time at the moment, and who is definitely a ‘person like Tracy’).
Click on the image below and it will take you there.
Isn’t that magic?
Anyway, here’s my thing for this week:
Equinox sunshine pots
The sun actually briefly came out on the spring equinox and in the late afternoon I noticed that it was shining through these pots of bulbs and spring flowers and actually looking like spring does in the magazines, rather than, well, this spring. I got the candelabra primula and the pot of daffs for mothers’ day, and both will get planted into the garden once they’re over, and the pots at the back are my tulip pots, which you may remember me planting up last autumn - I also stuck some scilla in with them, hoping they would come out at the same time which of course they haven’t, but they are a very pretty little precursor anyway. Tulips in luscious shades will be along in the not too distant future, but for now I am enjoying this tiny corner of proper spring.
That’s it from me. Please do leave a comment. What have you noticed or done this week? How did you mark the equinox? What wild-garlic-based foods did you eat? What bulbs have you sniffed? What seeds sown? And so on. Leave your comments below.
UPDATE As we begin to reflect on what has been particularly “this week”I wanted to give you all a little update on my situation as some of you have been so kind in replying and messaging me with love…..so this is the very latest! We had a huge day at the hospital on Wednesday- with test results, more tests and 2 consultations…..and now I know, with < great relief> that the breast cancer has not spread, it is contained to the one breast we know about, and the pathology shows it is the type which responds very well to the brilliant targeted treatment they have planned for me. Hurrah! We now know I start treatment ( which was all explained yesterday) the week after Easter week - so we are able to get up to our beloved Wooler for Easter after all. Relief and gratitude hardly describes the overwhelming feelings I have. Driving back from the hospital through blossomy, flowery, greening countryside was like the unfolding Spring was enfolding me in a massive hug. Tears of joy at last. I know I have a long and undeniably rough and at times rocky road ahead as I journey the road of chemo, surgery and recovery - but that was a moment to give me strength and joy. It was also the first day of Spring which felt so significant - and also World Happiness Day , which I’d normally scoff at - but believe me, it was very real for me!
I went away with work colleagues on a "team building" trip at the beginning of the week and I went on a five mile bike ride along Loch Tay. This happened to be my second ever (!!!) bike ride outside of the adult learners classes I took this time last year. The rivers babbling, the wind through my hair and the exhilaration of cycling into spring were all so wonderful! So great to see the new growth all around (and the growth within me 😉)