Sweet April Showers…

It is great to be back… but it was hard to leave as we had such a wonderful time at the cottage and experienced the first rays of warm sunshine that we had felt for ages and we have left it all behind to come back to the dismal grey and rain.  But who can resist April even in the rain.  My elder daughter was born this month and many times we have celebrated her birthday outdoors with a picnic and only once or twice have we had a sudden fall of snow.

In my Art Journal ‘Celebrating the Year 2009’ this is what I wrote…

My heart gives thanks for many things;

I know not how to name them all.

My soul is free from frets and stings,

For Sun and stars, for flowers and streams,

For work and hope and rest and play –

For empty moments given to dreams,

For these my heart gives thanks today.

 

~William Braithwaite

“By the first day of April everything around us is just beginning to stir and although the winds can still be quite fresh the air is warmer.  With the better weather creeping in the garden begins to cry out for attention as new growth is appearing everywhere.  This is the month when I want to throw open the windows to allow that fresh air into my home and begin a mammoth Spring Clean.  As I pack away the scarves, gloves and cosy blankets I can finally say goodbye to winter and be glad that those long dark evenings are fading fast.

Easter is most likely to fall within this month and everywhere there is so much to do and see.

Although I have lived in this Pennine area for many years I have not yet managed to go to our local- Marsden Cuckoo Day – celebrated in April.  It is a traditional festival that celebrates the arrival of spring (a bit like my Spring Cleaning!)  According to a local legend, Marsdeners used to try to prolong the cuckoo’s stay by building a wall around its nest.

I look forward to spending our Easter week at the cottage on the Mull of Galloway.  During our frequent walks along the beach we come across all kinds of unusual debris which has been tossed around by a raging winter sea and then ‘left for dead’ along the shoreline.  I have become quite a collector of these bits and pieces – it might be driftwood, metal, glass or old pieces of tile but each has become smoothed by the sea and formed into a new shape. Meanwhile in the woodland garden behind the cottage the birds are busy to and fro, gathering their own bits of fallen debris like twigs and hair and moss to make their nests”. 

So now the Spring Cleaning can begin in earnest..I can’t wait to get started.   And before you go I will have plenty of updates to post about our cottage garden in the coming days – we spent nearly all our time outdoors and our rubble pile is no more!