Taexalia

wild.life

Signs of Spring

Flowering Redcurrant

Yesterday I saw flocks of geese travelling North and I smiled up at them, hoping their sky arrows pointed to Spring.

Today I went to the garden to tackle some of the detritus of Winter -

one carrier bag of cat poo lifted from the main veg plot
the remains of my first greenhouse after "Hurricane Bawbag"

I'm sure there will be more cat poo, but I could only stomach lifting one bag today. It needs to be said that I do not own cats, nor do I hate them - nor do I, as one person assumed, draw "battle lines" as to whether dogs are better pets than cats. I did laugh at that one though, given that I have cared for around 70 cats as part of a Mother/Daughter foster team - who accidentally became adept at turning spitting claw ball feral kittens into loving family companions. I know cats, I have loved many cats and I think they are amazing animals - but they do shit in my veg garden and it does piss me off. This will be my third year of trying to prevent that. Wish me luck.

As for the greenhouse, well it wasn't so bad because we have already built the new greenhouse. It's bigger and probably just as likely to try and move to Norway in 100mph winds, but we have chosen a different spot this time. The instructions said "place out of wind" - well we live on the top of a hill and have no such place in our garden, so again - wish me luck.

Today I started shifted the gravel from the base of the old greenhouse into the base of the new one. I may have lost 1lb or 2. I may have a creaky body tomorrow. But the rescued pots and bits and pieces are now out of the shed and set up and the greenhouse is ready for action.

I started some seeds - onions and leeks in the greenhouse, and four kinds of tomatoes and four kinds of peppers on the bedroom windowsill.

This will guarantee a foot of snow to fall tomorrow.

Aside from the geese, I found a few other wee signs of Spring as I pottered around. Some honey bees were on the go, a hairy caterpillar crossed the patio and a lovely lacewing fluttered out of some of the stacked pots as I moved them out of the shed.

The bees will have some flowers to feed on as my Flowering Redcurrant is starting to open pink blooms, and I discovered the "weed" I rescued from a neighbour has decided to grow again and spread a little. It's a Winter Aconite, sometimes called Wolfsbane, and its first yellow flower brings the promise of warmer days and, most especially, looooonger days.

Winter Aconite