seeking balance

Seek Balance

Falling in line with natural rhythms, what does that exactly mean? For the last 3 years I have been trying to bring balance in my life and have observed the many rhythms that befall the earth and all living things and how much we are off sync with them.

according to wikipedia:

A circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the physiological processes of living beings, including plants, animals, fungi and cyanobacteria. The term "circadian", coined by Franz Halberg,[1] comes from the Latin circa, "around", and dies, "day", meaning literally "about a day." The formal study of biological temporal rhythms such as daily, weekly, seasonal, and annual rhythms, is called chronobiology.
In a strict sense, circadian rhythms are endogenously generated, although they can be modulated by external cues such as sunlight and temperature.

This would happen then every day, then there is the 365 day cycle of the earth. How do you balance with it?

In the last years I have observed little difference in our seasons, there are no clear cut off lines any more. My boys have no idea what coats are used for as the temperature stays quite high in winter, only a few frosty weeks per year if we are lucky.

Listening to Deepak Chopra in his audiobook Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, we can live harmoniously with this circadian rhythm by doing the following:

• Get up at 6 am and go to sleep at 10 p.m.. Get up when the birds do and observe the activity cycle in the day. Build up work between 6 and 10 am, peak between 10 am and 2 p.m., slow down gradually between 2pm and 6 p.m..
• Train our digestive system to have a bowel movement in the morning ( apparently you can do this).
• By getting up at 6 am and starting your day this way you will optimise your energy levels. have a main meal at lunchtime when digestion is at its peak, slow down after lunch, have a 15 mins walk in the fresh air, drink plenty of water, meditate and after a light meal at 6 p.m., slow down by reading, listening to music. Take a milky drink before bedtime.

During night-time we would then be relaxing between 6 and 10, between 10 p.m. and 2 p.m. we would be in a deep sleep and between 2 and 6 we would be gradually waking up for optimum health and energy levels.
He also suggests that women slow down during moontime, as this is a time of purification and downward movement and that we should be allowing this to happen naturally.
That sounds great, very balanced in a way and I will give that a go ( even the bowel movement training...does that work I wonder?), and see whether I feel any different and more in tune with nature.

The next balancing act for me, means eating in season. As there is a time for every season, our bodies in principle would benefit from a variety of nutrients that appear in our locality when growing and harvesting conditions allow for it, and thus we too should be able to blend our physiological process with the environment that surrounds us. And when we dare do that, we would be buying locally, working locally and be in balance with our environment as well as helping nature balance itself back.
Can this practically be achieved? It used to when man was in balance with nature and his environment. Can we get back to that on some level?

Green Tv - Garden Girl

Something to inspire on making raised beds and sustainable living in the city.

If it does not load up you can watch it using this link. There are plenty more videos to watch.

Parched

Marigold Indian Prince and wallflowers - planted underneath the fruit trees to attract shortsighted bees.....
The lettuces are ready and as the weather is hotting up, many saladdays ahead. Wilbert the pot man is keeping the pheasants away. Looking south.
There has been a flurry of planting today, green beans, beetroot, cabbages in this bed outside, lets hope the snails and slugs do not come out to feast on them too soon. I sprinkled the crushed eggshells in the hope it will deter them.
The strawberry tub is showing promise.

Wherever you look the earth is parched. No rain for 4 weeks now apart from a good dose of dew in the mornings. The rain butts are empty and and evening routine starts to water the plants in the garden. I am trying to refrain from hosepipes this year, in the knowledge that carefully watering the plants when they need it is better than putting the water all around the garden.
Wow, haven't things grown in the week I have been away.

I also planted some kidney beans ( scarlet lady). Tomorrow, salad seedlings to transplant, sunflower tithonia, beetroot second sowing, french beans second sowing. On the bench the courgettes, butternut squash, cucumber and pumpkins are making an entrance and the tomatoe plants are going ahead full steam. They were a bit behind this year but are now catching up.

By the way, we have put the homestead up for sale. Why you ask, it seems ideal. It is and will be sold with a full gardens produce. I am not stopping at the moment until a buyer appears.
We have plans for something that will expand what we are doing at the moment. I am not sure that I like the limbo between having taken a decision and awaiting execution. If no buyer appears then we will stay where we are...we love it.....its just that an opportunity has arisen and it is tempting us. More of that when it happens.

April heatwave

I am back from Belgium. I went wearing a scarf and took layers off every day as the temperature rose to 27 degrees centigrade.
Confession time.....I had to compromise with the travelling. I allow myself 1 flight per year and this was it. In the past I would have used flying without a thought;the thought of having to use the trains in England at the moment, based on last experience was too much. I would have liked to use the train again, but the price of the flight was less than if I had taken the train to London and Eurostar. I am not perfect...one flight per year sounds reasonable in a world where people fly all the time. You may say that that is hypocritical based on what I have written in this blog previously, but in the end, change can only happen gradually, and I am still adapting. I would like to use trains more but quality and value are just not there at the moment.
On the continent though I have been happy with transport provided. Belgian railways even allows you to buy your ticket online and print it off at home. That to me sounds very convenient and saves postage, miles and trees.
Just for comparison, a 2 hour train journey standard ticket costs 16 euros, which is the equivalent of about £ 10. I travelled from one end of the country to the other end ( must have been about 150 miles) return for that price. A ticket to London from my station is at best about £ 45.00. A buspass in Gent for 3 days costs £ 10 allowing me to use any tram, bus etc in the city. One journey from my nearest busstop to nearest town ( 15 miles), costs £ 7.00 in the UK. You can see we have a long way to go.
There were neat signposts in the cities, with clear timetables, and most busses and trams at about 6 to 12 mins intervals. Here you have to wait about 1 hour if you are lucky.
In the city the children take the bus and tram to go to school and it is not unusual for commuters to take 1 hour by train to go to work. I shared a journey with a teacher who every day takes a 45 mins train journey each way to work. Here you could be bankrupt if you attempted that. Over 65’s travel free after 9 am and pay about £ 1.50 for a train journey.
I can see some other advantages : If the public transport system is reliable, clean and on time, you may not need to move home so often. Were there still cars...sure.

There have been changes by airline companies too. The flights to my nearest airport have been reduced to 2 per day. The plane they used was completely full to capacity and was a small plane. In the past I have been to Belgium in a half empty plane. They no longer provide food and meals on board which must also reduce the amount of packaging and rubbish generated. Its a bit tricky with security at the moment that you cannot take your own drink which leaves you at the mercy of expensive water but there you go, small sacrifice for safety.

The heat was palpable in the city, many students used bikes to get around ( it is fairly flat there), cafes and terraces were open and people sat and talked. The pollen count rose as many trees and grasses shoot up their pollen in a desperate attempt to behave as if it is July. ( Can we blame them for being confused). The temperature in Gent was the highest it has been in April since recording started in 1830 something. This is therefore an important shift.

How do you therefore find a balance between value, time and quality. It is a difficult dilemma, without investment and commitment to public transport it will never change to gain the interest and loyalty of the consumer and without people using the services provided, the transport providers will say there is no need. Yet, we need change and we need to be persuaded to change. Car emissions and flying are major contributors to global warming.

It has therefore got to be in the hands of the consumer...we have a choice. You may think that my choice was the wrong one and if the choice was purely ecological then I would agree with you. Having spent time searching my conscience and available alternatives, I did the best I could with the resources I have and made a choice. That in itself is an achievement; thinking things through and weighing up each option.

It was not really a holiday as such but I travelled love miles. Many families, as a result of cheap airtravel are settling around the globe and to travel to see them is going to require airtravel or more flexible working to allow you to take 3 months off while you take a boat journey to another continent.

Did my journey have a purpose.....It was not to sit in the sun, to explore foreign parts and soak up a different culture. I was born in Belgium and have many elderly relatives there. I spent time with them which may in itself be priceless. My life was enriched by the details they added to my personal history, their memories of what life used to be like, their fears about our future and the future of the planet and their anxiety about how the younger generation withdraw from society using ipods and MP3 players. You may ask how this is relevant.......Change is happening and faster than you and I think. There were real memories of skating championships on canals that entire communities took part in. These have not been held since 1997 as the ice has simply not been there.


I am human, therefore I am fallible. I try to reduce my footprint but it is hard. Alone I can achieve something but together we could do more. Temptation stands in the way, habits are changed slowly and yet I wish I could do more. What will it take for me to feel the pinch?

More on awards

It must be something in the air...... but Heather from Wigglywigglers sent me an email to say that the wiggly podcast has been nominated for the Mouse and Trowell award which is simply fab. If you feel you want to go and have a look and vote for her you can do so here. Go on, she needs the vote and every vote counts......
There are some other blogs there that are great to look at too.

On the same day the awaited bokashi bins arrived and it looks good. My Dh did say ' what have you ordered now' as we have a no buy imbargo in place but I told him its an experiment which calmed him down a little.( he is used to my madness) A giant cardboard box with 2 plastic bins and entourage seemed an unlikely purchase.

Having my salad/ prawn wrap I sat and read the leaflet and it seems simple. I like the idea that the liquid that oozes out and needs collecting on a regular basis can be used as a feed for the plants ( watered down..) and I cannot wait to give it a go when I come back from my visit to Belgium. For the moment, the bins are stored in the kitchen.

I am going to be away for a week and if I can will look in from time to time. Not sure that I can post pictures but words might be good.

I am leaving the garden in the care of DH and small boys.....nothing can therefore go wrong. ( final last words)

The posy in the picture is a simple arrangement of primrose, wallflowers and cerinthe major.

Vanishing bees?

Beehive

Over the last few months, haphazardly, some mention is being made of the vanishing bees all over the world. They do not leave a trace and simply vanish into thin air.
There are quite a few articles about it on the net :
bbc news
Collony collapse disorder . wikipedia has a whole entry on it


Why is it important? Guess it depends on how you feel about bees.
Personally, I studied bees at school as a system, as well as ant colonies. It seemed an orderly world, self sufficient sort of world with clearly defined roles depending on whether you were a worker bee or the queen. The shapes produced in the hive were fantastic to look at and the end result, the honey’ a perfect edible thing. In fact to date honey is the only product that is not artificially produced. It may be mixed with sugar syrup but it cannot be made in any other way than by a bee.
Why is the bee vanishing? There are many speculations but without evidence of bodies that can be scientifically observed, it will be impossible to get an answer.
The fact is, they are vanishing and when the balance is upset in nature we should take notice.
Bees may appear to be insignificant on the surface of it, but they play an important role in the pollination of our crops and without this, there will eventually be no crops unless we are going to take on the role of the bees by using paint brushes to go from flower to flower ( you jest it may come to that).
We could turn the problem around. We can expect that they are sensible creatures, reacting to something that has changed for their very survival.
It could be climate ( we are working on that one). It could be pesticides ( we are working on that as well with the organic movement).
We cannot change the weather patterns but to me it is visible that the normal weather pattern is out of sync.
My sallow tree in the garden plays host to bees in the early spring and there were some around. Planting hedges will also provide flowers and blossoms for them to eat.
We do not usually cultivate flowers for bees but maybe our gardens could have varieties that will encourage and support bees. Last year the bees swarmed in may when the rape seeds were out in flower in the fields. The flowers have been blooming since the 10th April and a week ago was the coldest recorded day in April. No rain has fallen for 3 weeks following a soaked winter.

Plants in your garden that support bees :



Early spring
Aubretia
Berberis
Bluebell
Cotoneaster (e.g. horozontalis)
Crocus
Flowering current
Heleobores
Chaenomeles Japonica (Ornamental Quince - starts flowering very early)
Rosemary
Lungwort
Pussy willow (sallows)
Quince
Snowberry
Winter-flowering honeysuckle (for early queens coming out of hibernation)
Winter flowering heathers
Bee helpful, support the bees in your garden.


Late spring-early summer
Aquilegia
Campanula
Cat-mint
Comfrey
Delphinium
Foxglove
Geraniums
Honeysuckle
Lavender
Lupin
Monks Hood
Raspberry
Rhododendron
Roses (Old English)
Pea (everlasting, sweet, crops)
Sea-lavenders
Snapdragon
Stachys
Thyme
Summer
Blackberries
Cornflower
Eryngium (sea holly genus)
Geranium
Fucshia
Heathers (summer flowering)
Lavender
Mallows (Malva and Lavertera)
Pea flowers (of various types)
Sage and allies
Scabious
Thistle type flowers

The fact that bees are disappearing is a symptom, we need to look at what is the cause of their disappearance but we have no tangible evidence. The only thing I feel I can do is to encourage the support network bees need to survive which is the plant list above. If you can, do the same.
If as a bee expert, you can contribute anything else we could do, then please leave a comment.

Photo walk the garden

Lazy days of summer approach as far as the cat is concerned.
Geranium, lobelia and petunias wait warmer days to be planted and sold to neighbours.
Wild and cultivated wallflowers. I love the colours of warmth they promise. Summer....a taste of it...never forgotten.
As a fan of Jane Austen, our front porch typifies an english country cottage. Clematis on one side, roses on the other, rosemary and camelia hide in the background.
Cerinthe major adorns the front flower garden. Apart from being purple its shape is a lovely addition to a posy arrangement of primroses and tulips. I used to buy flowers often but am quite happy to cultivate annual flowers in the garden and change the landscape a little. It provides not only me with smiles, but also passers by.

April gardening

Vegetable Basket

Little extra in the food planning this month :

You could sow the following :
french beans
runner beans ( kidney beans)
maincrop potatoes
courgettes and squashes, cucumber
rocket and variety salads including spinach
carrots
spring onions


Tomato plants should be growing upwards, early potatoes in leaf under cover, onions looking strong, broad beans forming beans, strawberries showing flowers, lettuces hearting up...

Hows your garden?


What is in season in April in the UK?

asparagus broccoli
cabbages chives
radishes Jerusalem artichokes
mushrooms rocket
spring onions sorrel
watercress
wild garlic

And if you want wild food, consider nettle soup with the tops of the nettles.

Food Storage - 3

Kitchen -cupboard

Why preserve? You could just simply eat what is in season, or you could just pop into the shop. Why would you ever want to preserve your food.

If we look back into history, food meant wealth. You could also not guarantee that the harvest from one year to the next would be a reality and a success. Preserving some food and some seeds could indeed stave off starvation if the weather prevented cultivation. Many civilisations moved across one end of the land to the other and preserves were their only way of keeping them alive apart from hunting and gathering.

Preserving enables you to take control of what is in your food, what you have grown and create a delicious banquet of food for your family to enjoy over the next year. The other is taste, a simply smoked kipper may not be smoked to your liking and you might like your lime pickle hotter than mine. Preserving enables you to find out what makes your tastebuds sing and gives you the satisfaction that you can make food that reflects your tastes and not simply the taste of the supermarket buyer.

You can preserve a whole host of international things that are simply not available in the shops. And amongst other things, preserving is fun, messy at times, scientific and very worthwhile when the shelves are lined with food that you have grown, picked and preserved.

How can you preserve food ?

Drying - fish and pasta are examples, as well as fruits, sun dried tomatoes, figs, cranberries, fruit leathers.
Salting - bacon, beef, anchovies, salt pork, gravadlax, sweet cured ham.
Smoking - kippers, salmon, beef, goose mackerel
making sausages -
Pickling - peppers, onions, ketchup, lemons,ghurkins, herrings, onions, cucumber, relish
Infused oils and vinegars - for marinades, on salads...tapenade, chilli oil. garlic oil. raspberry vinegar
Fermenting - sauerkraut,kimchee, miso,
Sugar - almond clusters, candied orange peel, crystalised violets,pumpkin and maple spread, jellies and jams, mint jelly, marmalade
alcohol - sloe gin, flavoured fruits of the forest in rum, oranges in brandy,
bottling and canning - tomatoe passata, peaches, plums, reday meals.
Freezing - fruits and vegetables.

So where shall we start....in season or per category?

Most familiar are jams and jellies on which I have touched before. Freezing is an easy preserving method but it requires a freezer and electricity and it all depends how you feel about that.

All in all, the delicacies that cost the earth are those that have been preserved with spices and oils, something different to flavour your food with and are an excellent talking point when you give gifts away at holiday times.

Inspired?

Magnolia Bloom

Every year for mothers day, my children have given me plants. This is 2002, the magnolia tree which moved with us here. Every time it blooms I am reminded of the blossoms in my life. my children. These flowers fade after a few weeks bathing in the sun, but their memory lasts a lot longer. When I am old and wearing purple, I will sit in the garden and gaze at the magnolia tree and enjoy the blooms......
Such is the power of plants. My Dh never buys me flowers in bunches, but I have been given many plants that grow and flower each year. I feel blessed that way all through the seasons.

Thinking Blogger Awards

Katie nominated me for the thinking bloggers award, a meme with a difference. Thank You Katie for thinking about me making you think.


So who has made me really think........ Here goes :

The deliberate agrarian ; makes me think about a different model of living, how it is possible and how we can live in harmony with the world around us.

Get rich slowly - makes me think how I can make the most of what I have and how to save in any way I can to achieve feeling rich on a budget.

Peak oil premonitions - how can we raise awareness about a life without oil?Does anyone take this seriously. It makes me think how we take oil for granted and how actually it is not a renewable endless resource.
Wigglywigglers - Heather really walks her talk, as well as running a very successful business with a ot of thoughful products, her podcast really brings to the forefront the difficulties faced by farmers, gardeners and ecologists. It makes me think about how we can bridge the gap between self sufficiency, the environment and supporting the community around us.
Irish Sally gardens - Rebecca makes me think about how authentic living can be achieved.....a motto that motivates me still is

dream your life and live your dream

and Rebecca and her family make me think that dreams can become reality.

Its tough just choosing 5 blogs...less is more in the end.

About this post :


I am not a fan of meme's but in a way its the same as being recommended by word of mouth on the web which can only be a good thing.

Original rules of the thinking bloggers award can be found here:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. I thought it would be appropriate to include them with the meme.

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

More thoughts on Bokashi

I am still thinking about it.........

What is it? Where does it come from?

Apparently with bokashi you can discard meat, fish, dairy and even bones right in your kitchen without the requirements of turning it like you do outdoor compost and without creating unpleasant smells. Developed in Japan, a bokashi bin quickly and odourlessly converts your organic waste into a high-grade soil conditioner through the use of effective microbes or bokashi — a Japanese word meaning "fermented organic matter."

Similar to the process used to make wine, this system relies on fermentation to decompose the matter rather than putrefaction, so no offensive odor is produced. In about 10 days you can bury the nutrient-rich matter in the garden or add it to your compost pile to help improve physical, chemical and biological environments in the dirt. Sprinkle a handful of bokashi onto the waste every time you add to the bucket. One bag of bokashi is good for one bucket full of compost.

I do not have any experience of bokashi at the moment but that is about to change, What appeals is the waste that finds its way each day from the table, that cannot be recycled in any other way. I am curious....but beware, dealing with waste is an expensive matter.


How to use bokashi:

1. Place an initial layer of Bokashi at the bottom of the bucket.
2. Collect your daily food waste and chop it into small pieces.
3. Place waste in the bucket and coat it with a layer of Bokashi. For less than a 3" layer of food waste, sprinkle two fistfuls of Bokashi to cover the entire surface. Mix this layer thoroughly and compact the waste by pushing it down. Sprinkle a coat of Bokashi to cover the surface and place the plastic barrier directly on the compost mixture, completely covering it. Stir each new layer only and try not to mix it with previous layers of food waste.
4. Periodically, drain the liquid that has accumulated at the bottom bucket.
5. Once the bucket is filled to capacity, continue to drain any liquid and let the contents ferment for 7-10 days at room temperature.
6. Fermented compost will not completely degrade but will retain much if it original physical properties and will have a pickled appearance. Complete breakdown of material will occur once it is transferred into the soil.

Transfering the Compost:
1. Transfer directly into your garden - dig a trench at least 18" - 24" deep. Mix the fermented material with soil as you add it to the trench. Be sure to cover the compost completely with soil.
2. Transfer material directly to a planter/container - fill 1/3 of container with potting soil. Then add fermented material and mix lightly with soil. Fill remaining 1/3 of the container with potting soil and cover with a dark plastic bag to maintain anaerobic conditions. Wait two weeks before planting.

Notes: Only fresh waste may be added. Rotten foods disrupt the fermentation process.

Materials that can be included: Vegetable, fruits, grains, dairy, meat, bones, coffee grounds without filter paper.

Materials that cannot be added: Plastics, paper, tea bags, cigarette butts, tin cans, aluminum.




What does bokashi look like? One website explains it here


The question remains how to dispose of the mixture every 2 weeks. Do you just add it to your compost heap to speed up and add to it or do you simply dig holes on a regular basis all over your land and create a small bokashi landfill site? You’ll have to wait and see....we are about to find out. Pictures will follow and I will tell all.
At least it has got to be worth a try ....or experiment to deal with the remaining waste issue.

Glorious salad days

Despite colder evenings and mornings, nature seems to be wanting to move forward to Spring weather. I would like to plant the above salad seedlings into the polytunnel but have to wait until after the next weekend when we will move the chicken tractor back in operation. For the moment anything that is vaguely green and edible has been devoured by the chickens roaming the garden so small lettuce seedlings, carefully nurtured are not going to be chicken food. ( A lot of fowl language has happened around here.....at the chickens ( pun intended !).
My DS 2 managed to do a bit of digging this afternoon on the clay bed which when the chickens have moved will get a lot of compost dumped on the area to make it easier to work with. So a lot of earthmoving is planned to prepare for the new season. It is simply too gorgeous out there today to be here so...I am off to the garden.

I am about to order my bokashi set from wigglywigglers and cannot wait to se what a difference that is going to make to our composting efforts. I am still aiming at not having the dustman call. ( No its not a dream, it should be possible to recycle, reduce and reuse or compost most of what comes in).

DYING EGGS FOR EASTER

Dyed Easter Eggs are Arranged in a Circle

You may know that I dye yarn with natural dyes and many ingredients we have around the home can be used to dye eggs with for Easter.

At this time of the year you might well find kits in the shops to dye eggs in primary colours to decorate your home or do an easter egg hunt.
Last year, I used some housepaint that was left over in a variety of pastel shades but in the end these are neither edible or safe so have been looking at different ways to get colours in a natural way.

You need hard boiled eggs......? I guess you know how to boil an egg but if not here goes :
put the eggs in a pot with enough water to cover the eggs by 2.5 cm or 1 inch. Once the water boils, give it 10 mins for a hard boiled egg. Then remove from the heat and immeditately place the eggs in cold water. I run the cold water tap in the pan and let it overflow ( use it for washing up afterwards).

Once the egg is cold you can decide on how to colour it.

To make the dye:

Place 1 to 3 handfuls of the dyestuff in a saucepan . Add about 1 cup of water or about 2.5 cm above the dystuff. Bring to the boil, boil for 15 mins to an hour until you get the colour you like. Strain and put the liquid in a measuring cup. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of vinegar to it. Put the warm dye in a pot tall enough to hide the eggs ( I use a large breakfast bowl and put it in the bottom aga oven. Leave the eggs in the pot until they have the colour you like. Lift them with a spoon and leave them on a rack to dry.

Now for the colours :

Pink/red - beetroot, cranberries, radishes and raspberries
orange - yellow onion skins
primrose yellow - orange and lemon peel, carrot tops, celery seed, ground cumin
dark yellow - turmeric ( use 2 tablespoons to make dye)
light green - spinach leaves
green-gold : apple peels
blue - red cabbage leaves
light brown to dark brown - strong brewed coffee
brown/ochre - dill seeds
orange-brown - chilli powder ( 2 tablespoons)


Or be creative and have a go with whatever else you have around the house that seems promising to dye with.

The dye liquid can be safely disposed off on the compost heap.

Easter goodies

Adding to the etsy shop today, 2 hanks of blue faced leicester 100% 4 ply yarn, handdyed with natural dyes. each hank will make a pair of socks or both together would make a lovely shawl. the colours will fade slightly over time as they are completely natural dyes.

Also added, a pair of ladies socks, would fit UK size 7 ( length of foot 23.5cm). These were knitted in Colinette's jitterbug. Perfect for the Easter Egg hunt in the garden.
Am having a spinning day today...although the garden beckons.

Palm Sunday

Not a palm in site in our climate but a chance to reflect a little while walking in the garden. This is meant to be a rest day and yet with a family there is very little time to rest. Walking in the garden, I was met by a blackbird who was trying to find some worms at the top of the surface. I did tell him that I would like him to leave some as they are good for the soil, but apart from hopping around, he took very little notice of me.
In the front garden, the tulips give a lovely show of red. I planted them amongs the wallflowers that are not quite out at the moment.

It has bene a reflective day today. I would like to think that spring is definitely here being the beginning of April, but then....I cannot be certain of any weather anymore. All I can do is watch what is happening around me and hope that the signs around me are correct...days should be getting warmer.