Wednesday 18th march 2008

Spent a few peaceful afternoon hours in the garden. The sun was strong enough to my face blush and it imparted a glow that I can feel still in the dark evening. The birds are alive and tentatively exploring the feeders I placed around the garden. It doesn’t take long before they are free of fear and greedily feeding of the peanut suet. It is so incredibly peaceful despite the noise from the road. The marvellous human mind can tune out this type of background interference and focus on just the sounds of nature. Or I simply have selective hearing. I placed some compost over the potatoes, read the paper, ate a pie, yoghurt and a bag of cheese and onion crisps...bliss.

Tomorrow I will move some plants from the bog garden and begin to dig the pond out. That should be a nice job to complete in the spring sunshine. Everything is incredibly dappled this afternoon. We had a heavy mist this morning which burnt away in the sunshine leaving shafts of light slanting down through the bare branches of the trees. The shadows at this time of year are cast so long and reveal all the subtleties in the green shades. It was so incredible that I took a long, leisurely walk around the hill. Somebody has cut a small section of the fence at the bottom leaving a gap large enough for a dog or fox to get through and it certainly has as the ground is full of dig marks...the hole though looks like it was made some years ago. It will soon be time for a new fence I think.

It’s 3.30pm and the sun is beginning to dip away behind the pine trees at the top of the hill. I feel much calmer now than when I arrived. It has been my first real spring day of 2009 even though officially it does not start for another three days on Saturday (21st) tomorrow is forecast with warm sun from the get-go so I’ll be ready with everything I need to cook breakfast alfresco for me and Nick...can’t wait.