A Winter’s Chill

Decidedly brisk and nippy…

With wet weather at every turn of December I can’t help but feel somewhat cheated. Free time is plagued with unfavourable weather and this leaves me nail bittingly close to ruined dahlia tubers in the ground. Sharply distracted by the sight of flourishing ammi and stock seedlings.

I pull out the larkspur seeds, buried beneath the frozen bags of plums in the freezer draw. I seek a bit of solace in the small greenhouse tucked away in the corner of my back yard. Filling seed trays with peat free compost I carefully peel back the packet to sow 1 seed in each cell.

Looking down at my packets I get a sense of, do I have enough vintage colours, do I have enough cream, peach and plum. So with this nagging thought parking itself at the back of my brain I begin thumbing my way through seed catalogues.

Satisfying my need to make sure I have every shade of larkspur, stock and digitalis that I will treasure cutting, I now take a short walk to the potager and shamelessly begin a fire to clear and make way for 2022. I look up and thank whoever is looking down and begin digging up the much over due Dahlias for storage.

It is now New Year’s Eve I can’t help but think, for me how lucky I was to be given free spare time in the form of a lockdown. These moments of locking down society wasn’t the best situation to be in for me nor indeed anyone else but…. I found solace. I found a treasure trove of time that I had never experienced before laid out before me. I snatched this chest full of gold and ran with it, sowing, digging, redesigning, actually planning out my seasons and most of all I got to sit, breath and just be.

And for this very reason. I am grateful and I wish you all a very happy New year.