I think we need something more cheerful this week, and the weather has certainly delivered. It is bright, with a brisk wind from the north-east, that is surprisingly mild. Leaf and blossom are now well advanced, and more of the spring migrants have arrived, butterflies are emerging from hibernation, and although we didn’t have our usual spring frenzy of frog mating in the pond:

This is from 2015!

We do have some tadpoles, and possibly even some newt efts. I’ve been busy in the garden, and things are moving on. Annual seeds I sowed early last week are beginning to show through, and there are a lot of seedlings in the greenhouse.

I think there has been a stern puritanical spirit about, and many people seem to have taken to vegetable growing during the lockdown. I have to say that I have channelled my inner peasant, (never really too far from the surface) and I have more salad things growing this year than I’ve had since I gave up my allotment.

But the herbs aren’t being neglected

This is Solomon’s seal, growing in the shade of a birch and a holly seedling that sprouted from nowhwere some years back. Solomon’s Seal is known for the salve for bruises which can be made from the roots, which Culpeper notoriously described as being good for the injuries sustained in domestic violence. I’ll be working on a herb newsletter next week, featuring sorrel.

Somehow, I don’t seem to have written much (though revised a lot) but I have been working through my to-read list, with some mixed results. I can, however, wholeheartedly recommend Kei Miller’s In the Nearby Bushes, Moya Cannon’s Donegal Tarantella, and The Craft, a book of essays on making poetry edited by Rishi Dastidar. It’s brilliant for when you know a poem isn’t working and you’re wondering what on earth you missed.

James McGonigal’s In Good Time should have had its virtual launch by now, but we are waiting for the cover image. Everything is a bit slower just now, but let me tell you, it will be a book worth waiting for!