Spring around the corner

I’ve never been so happy to see the turn of January to February to and feel the first signs of spring. This was the first week when the light began to change, the sun felt a little warmer when it made an occasional appearance, the days became noticeably longer and something in the air proclaimed that spring was finally around the corner.

It’s cold again this weekend after a milder spell – it’s been snowing lightly all day. But having spent all week at my desk with precious little time outdoors, I was determined to keep moving as much as possible over the weekend. Yesterday, I cleared out the garden compost bins, mulched the flowerbeds and carted a big manure delivery from the driveway into the shed. Eventually it will be going up to the allotment, once the ground is a bit less sodden so it’s easier to push the wheelbarrow along the muddy allotment paths.

This morning, I walked to the allotment with snow hurtling horizontally into my face in the cold wind, feeling the cold on my face but enjoying the rest of my body being warm and dry in my winter coat, lined trousers and big snow boats. There is something really lovely about being wrapped up really warm, outside in the cold weather.

Getting outside and putting one foot in front of the other rarely fails to calm me down. I had woken up feeling a little anxious and knew I needed to get moving before I let it take hold. At first I was tired and distractible, my head full of work, covid and non-specific jitters.

I listened to a book about conservation and agriculture as I walked, and took the back street route to avoid the noise of the traffic on the main roads. Gradually, as I walked, I found myself more able to tune in and listen to the author’s voice. After half an hour or so I realised I had started to calm down. By the time I got to the allotment I was calm, relaxed and in my flow, taking pictures of details and making mental notes and plans for the year.

There wasn’t a soul in sight at the allotment: who goes to their allotment in the snow? It was brilliant, just what I needed; a bit of peace and space completely by myself to potter around for a little while.

There isn’t much to do up on the plot at the moment other than check everything over to make sure it’s all ok, and see whatever there is to see.

The raised beds are really proving their worth at the moment – a lot of the site is completely waterlogged, including around the raised beds, but the beds themselves are fine.

There’s a new bloom of fungi next to the shed, growing in the woodchip we’ve laid as paths between the raised beds. This gave me pause to stop and look, and made me quietly happy as fungi always do 🙂

I sowed the first seeds of the year this afternoon: sweet peas, 8 different varieties, for planting out on the allotment once the soil has warmed up. I’ve got some lovely dark colours and some really nice ripple varieties that I’m hoping will go well together in bunches. I’ll germinate them inside and then grow them on in the cold frame before planting them out on the plot in April (or maybe even March if it’s warm and I am impatient).

I love sowing seeds at this time of year: each seed sown is a little act of faith that the spring and summer will come, it will be light and warm and there will be lovely flowers, long evenings spent outside in t-shirts and loads of lovely food growing. With each day that passes, those times come closer and I feel myself starting to unfurl from this long, long winter. Come on spring. Come on.