The House Husband

When we went to the park this morning for our walk, it looked wonderful. The hawthorn has started to blossom, readying itself for any Beltane festivities, daisies are springing up everywhere, the trees are back n leaf, the mud has dried up. The sun was shining and a wind was blowing, keeping everything cool. I was forced to wear shorts, it was so warm.

Meanwhile, our garden is starting to come alive with bulbs. A few isolated frescias are starting to appear around my fairy circle. The daffs that line the shadow of what was once the Wendy House have yet to be anything but green, but the tulips are all starting to bloom. The yellow ones up under the gazebo are the first while the red ones down by the cherry tree are almost ready. Mirinda’s potted tulips are just ready to explode with colour as are the ones I planted beneath the weather station.

And the magnolia! Goodness. What a lot of flowers.

As I sit typing this in the study, the garden looks alive. The birds are twittering and dashing to and fro, a squirrel is hanging from the hornbeam, one poodle is asleep on the patio while the other is lying behind me on my chair. The world looks wonderful today.

Nicktor is due at 6pm and we’re off to watch the mighty Shots.

Yellow tulips under the gazebo

Today we returned from a week on the Isle of Wight and the garden has gone mad. It has been sun, sun, sun! The grass is ready for its first mow of the year, and the tulips are starting to open.

Tomorrow I shall try and get some photographs on the site of our holiday. Though we are collecting the poodles tomorrow so they might just demand a bit of attention.

Oh and Chelsea beat Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final today.

Spring has sprung a little late this year. There has been a general outpouring of grief over the total lack of daffodils. It was so bad that on the magazine programme, The One Show on BBC1, they had a daff-map and asked viewers to send in photographs of any that had appeared. The map was not very yellow!

The first (live) daffs I saw this year were in a couple of flower boxes outside Pizza Express in Castle Street, which I don’t really count. They might have been warmed up in a greenhouse before being moved!

There was a notice in the park late last year, which loudly proclaimed that 10,000 daff bulbs had been planted along the avenue of trees. This was something to look forward to! Sadly there has been no sight of any of them. Until this afternoon, that is.

Walking to the station this morning, I noted that the crocuses I photographed last week are nearly all gone, to be replaced with a fair few yellow daffodils, gradually appearing. They are spread through the terrace and along the path. They always look wonderful so I’m just waiting. I will have my camera with me.

I was at uni then at lunch with Mirinda today. I arrived home at about 4:30 so I saddled up the poodles and took them for a wonderful afternoon jaunt in the park. And, guess what? Yep. Daffs are starting to appear between the trees along the avenue! It’s starting to look wonderful. It will only get better.

After a dismal winter and a horrendously wet February, this is exactly what we need. Fresh and yellow, new buds on trees and the sun still in the sky at 7pm. Love it.

Today is the first day I have really felt like spring has arrived. Ok, so far March has been pretty glorious but, even so, today just felt right. And it appears I’m not the only one.

The postman, who has never really spoken to me before, decided today was the right day to chat about how wonderful it was having frosty mornings and no rain. His face was a picture of grinning. He was very chatty. He said “Nice to meet you” as he mounted his bike to pedal off to next door.

On my walk into Farnham, everybody said “Good morning“. It isn’t exactly rare for people to greet me as I walk into town but today it was everyone. Now that is rare! And all smiling they were too. Mothers with babies and toddlers, couples with dogs, old men with sticky out ears. All of them.

Obviously the staff in Starbucks were all cheerful but they always are. It’s really nice when the baristas know what I have. Today I was standing patiently in line behind a woman and her small son of about 4, trying to decide what to eat. Not him, the son, he had picked his meal and was at the counter. No, it was her. She dithered and faffed and generally held us all up. The girl on the coffee bar noticed me, waved and gestured if I was having it in or taking away. I gestured back. By the time the woman and her son had finished, my coffee was waiting at the till and all I had to do was pay. I do like that.

Taking the dogs for their walk I was pleasantly surprised when a couple of teenagers (from the uni by the looks of their clothes) smiled and said hello when we passed them by in Badger Wood. The joys of spring are obviously highly addictive.

And then, to top it all off, this afternoon a chap came to read the electric meter. Generally when this happens, the guy comes in, reads it and goes. Usually takes about a minute. Not today. He fussed over the dogs, was whistling and commented on how wonderful the day was as he strolled away ten minutes later.

Gee I love spring. And daylight saving starts this weekend. We are finally over the dark period.