After a week of uninterrupted sunshine here in South East England, I woke up this morning to a fine shower of constant Spring rain.
Grey skies, a hazy damp mist and, yes, OK, rain.
Out in the street people are walking by under their umbrellas and it would be easy to come out with a remark like “awful weather” or some such negative observation.
I am putting my feet up this week as I noted in an earlier blog and part of the reason for that was to find my inner peace, man, to relax a bit after my neurologist expressed some concern about my blood pressure and, well, to take a break from writing which has been my constant activity on pretty well a daily basis for well over a year now.
So I have been writing my blog but, apart from that, I have been slobbing around the house in just a pair of shorts, listening to music – mostly early Dvorak and middle period Smetana – feeling very Czech Bohemian as you can tell.
I was certainly not going to get down-hearted about the rain.
I thought I should take some photographs of my garden in the rain to illustrate my mood but I couldn’t be bothered to change out of my shorts. Maybe I won’t bother I thought, finishing a rather good cup of Colombian coffee. Oh what the Hell! It is only rain.
So I grabbed my camera and went out just as I was – carpe diem and all that. I have my first daffodils and the croci are in their first blush of bloom.
The Spring rain smells so good today – well is it the rain or is it the water on my newly hoed and fertilized soil or is it the energy from the new leaves and bulbs? It is the combination I suspect along with the Spring light and, quite possibly, by our own rising sap at this time of year. Whatever it is, there is a sweetness in the air that more than makes up for the lack of sunshine.
By the time these photographs were taken, I was soaking wet but it was good to remember how nice it is to be a part of Nature and to feel the rain on your skin. Hey man, maybe my inner hippie is trying to tell me something but I certainly felt at one with my plants which are all looking revitalised by those large droplets of heavenly moisture.
Back inside for another cup of coffee and a quick rub over with a towel, I notice that the first of those seeds sown in my propagator only last Sunday, are now ready to have their lids removed.
Spring is a powerful force and plant life shows us just how strong that force is – I am inspired by those tiny seedlings, no fragility there, they are forging ahead with their lives and reminding us to do the same thing too. A good lesson I think from my week of being a slob. I shall go off to the gym in a moment.
