In spring new life bursts into the open yet despite the exuberance and vigour of all the new growth flower colours are soft and harmonious. In our garden I love the pastel blooms of the first bulbs in shades of lemon, lilac and soft blue. Then we have blossom in all shades of pink and cream plus fresh white of course. Usually new leaves are a fresh shade of lime green which sets it all off beautifully. I love spring!
There’s no doubt that the colours of spring appeal to me but there’s much more to it than that. There’s something about spring that makes me feel so happy to be alive. There are subtle scents on the breeze. Flowers warming in the sunshine, the sharp scent of mown grass and that unmistakable scent of warm earth when bending down to pull up a few weeds. Taking a few minutes to enjoy a coffee on my studio deck means that I can observe the wildlife without disturbing anything. Birds are singing to claim their patch of garden or simply for the sheer joy of living. Watching them as they swoop across the field makes me wonder if they are trying to impress a mate or swooping and twirling just because they can. Well I would… wouldn’t you?
This week I’ve been looking closely at textures and most beautiful of all at the moment are the buds on our trees. Sycamore is considered to be the weed tree by many in horticulture. It’s true that they self seed around and may become annoying in some gardens… but not here! Just take a look at their pink buds and deeply veined leaves unfurling. How amazing are they?
I took these photos on our driveway where Sycamore grows in the hedgerows. The background plants are Symphoricarpus albus which are just coming into leaf too. You may remember them from one of my Looking Good posts in September… they produce white berries in autumn.
Another little bundle of texture turned up unexpectedly. A young hedgehog appeared one sunny afternoon. Hedgehogs shouldn’t be out during the daytime as they are nocturnal animals so we were quite concerned. We fed it dog food and water and it ambled off quite happily we thought. Then the little creature reappeared the next day so we rang the Hedgehog rescue centre. They were fully booked and advised us to take him to the local vet.
Over the phone the vet told us that it was good news that his eyes were bright and he was rolling into a ball when we picked him up. We popped him into a plant propagator with a lid and whizzed off to the vets in the next village.
We felt confident that he was in good hands even though I had to sign a form consenting to euthanasia if necessary. They said they would keep him in to try to help out. We are hoping that the vet can save his life. It doesn’t seem right that something so tiny should be suffering when everything around us is so full of life and energy.
I hope you are enjoying the lovely spring sunshine in your garden this week and hopefully I’ll have some good news soon. Gillian 🙂
