The Madness of March…

 The arrival of March sees the passing of winter and today the first day of March – it is dry, quite cold, but not bitter as the last few days have been and exceptionally still, a very grey day and typical of how I usually think of March but without the wind!

I am already finding it difficult to remember what I did in February the month passed by so quickly.  As usual I will begin the month with an excerpt from one of my Art Journals and this is taken from Celebrating the Year 2009 (coloured writing).  The photo is of the cutest little cottage on the very tip of the Mull of Galloway, it has not been lived in for years and there are no services or piped water laid on and no road – you have to cross a field. Every time we drive around the corner and it comes into view we fall in love with it all over again.  The farmer won’t sell (we have asked already!) but I could easily see myself living here and just absorbing the peace.

Mull of Galloway 2009

“Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade”

–   Algernon C. Swinburne, March: An Ode

“When we are staying at our beach cottage, just as the sun is setting at the end of the day, we often take a trip around the loop road that skirts around the end of the Mull of Galloway.  Very few people live down here, just the odd cottage or farmhouse dotted along the way.  It is a place of perfect peace and freedom.  The undisturbed wildness has natural balance and beauty.  This is the place where my soul sings, this is where I feel I have the world to myself, close to nature and closer to God. 

As we crawl along the narrow winding roads we are lucky enough to see the wild deer grazing or a fox stalking through the long grass.  Suddenly a hare will appear in the road darting quickly from side to side looking for a gateway to make its escape.  After the long winter months there can be few sights more uplifting than the grace and beauty of the Brown Hare – they are symbolic of the British countryside but are becoming increasingly rare.  March is the time when they are most active as it is their breeding season.  Although they are usually solitary, you may be lucky enough to see two hares boxing as part of their courtship ritual.

You do not have to go as far as the Mull of Galloway to spot a hare in the wild.  The best time to see one is in the evening on open grassland, especially near arable land.

 However the High Peak Estate in Derbyshire is the only place outside of Scotland and the Isle of Man that you can spot a white Mountain Hare”.

Have you got great plans for March?

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February…the promise of Spring…

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