Spring Fever

It's another gloriously warm, sunny day and spring fever is setting in in earnest. Even though the countryside looks wintry , things are starting to happen !



Daffodils are pushing up their green spears through last year's oak leaves,

the first clump of crocuses has appeared under the birdfeeder,

in front of the house the winter jasmine is blooming


and here are more winter aconites, lifting their little flat faces to the warm sun.

All the lilacs have fat buds on every branch - they've packed their bags and are ready to go at the first signal of spring. You can practically feel them straining at the leash !

Every day I go outside, curious to see what has changed overnight , but there are still many days of winter in store for us . This February reprieve is just a little taste of things to come, a little glimpse of the mighty workings that go on unseen under the seemingly dead ground. It should encourage us when everything seems dead and flat in our own lives, when we think that there is no progress, no change, nothing happening at all, but underneath there is always change, more profound and inevitable than we realize.