I love the way the petals show off such dainty spots, an artist's challenge if ever I saw one.
So what has Spring got to offer? Lighter evenings and warmer days for a start. Mr A has not been able to work in his much loved garden lately and I've not been able to sit on my swing seat and watch him work! We used to have in depth discussions each Spring about which vegetables to grow for that year's harvest but not any more. Vegetables need such a lot of attention and it's time for a new tradition. We will discuss which flowers to order, plug plants to take the risk out of the seed sowing, and we will fill those beds with a mass of colour. There's too much grey out there.
Spring means that everything is beginning again, birds building nests, flowers preparing to dazzle but it's not all about looking forward. All that new life is tinged with sadness. It's so hard to accept that this Spring my sister won't be planting out her pots. My sister, who died last June, lived in an upstairs flat in Lyme Regis. She had no garden but the path beside her front door was packed each summer with all manner of flowers tumbling over the sides of pots. She spent hours each evening dead-heading and watering... until two years ago when her health deteriorated. I have a rose bush in our garden that she bought me for one of my big birthdays. It has the most amazing flowers every year and I have always sent her a photo of the first full bloom. This year I hope you will indulge me because I would like to post this year's rose photo on my blog. Like I said, it's time for new traditions.
