After a sunny and relatively mild weekend here in South East England, I can look out at my small Lewes garden and enjoy the results of some intense gardening – doing the work I should’ve done in February but completed, I think, in the nick of time if I’m to get another dramatic display of roses in the summer.

So with lacerated hands from all that rose pruning and the few aches and pains that usually accompany that first major gardening day of the year, I can now enjoy the rather late display of crocuses without any sense of guilt at jobs not done.

I’ve always liked the look of the garden after its end of the winter clean up – it is probably never as orderly again at any other time in the year – the later luxuriant wildness that I try to encourage is all based on detailed neatness at the beginning of the year.

The post Getting my Lewes garden in order for the gardening year ahead. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

It’s been difficult to feel gloomy on a day like today here in Lewes, UK. It might be raining elsewhere in England and worse in the USA but here the sun is shining and my garden has become a joyful scene painted in yellow and purple.

I know it’s still a long way to Spring but, come on, you’d have to have a heart of stone not to be moved into a spirit of optimism on such a day.

Daffodils arrive with a particular glory ringing out the new season from their trumpets.

No wonder William Wordsworth celebrated them in Romanticism’s most famous flower poem.

No wonder either that that most Romantic of composers, Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) spent much of February 1841 writing his joyful Spring Symphony in response to his marriage in 1840 to his lover and muse, Clara Wieck (1819 – 1896).

So if you’re not lucky enough to have your own Spring flowers yet, you can at least listen to the song-like slow movement from this symphony. Why not lie back on that Wordsworthian couch and let your heart dance with the daffodils. Well, do whatever takes your fancy but enjoy the moment.

For oft, when on my couch I lie

from Daffodils (1802) by William Wordsworth (1770 – 1850)

Here’s a suitably youthful and romantic version of the larghetto movement from Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, Op. 38 (Spring) played by The Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by the brilliant Canadian conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin:

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL

My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:

http://wardwoodpublishing.co.uk/titles-fiction-colin-bell-stephen-dearsleys-summer-of-love.htm 

…or from Book Depository:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Stephen-Dearsleys-Summer-Love-Colin-Bell/9781908742070

…or from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Stephen%20Dearsley’s%20Summer%20Of%20love

The post Nearly Spring here in Lewes – Romantics know just how to celebrate it. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

There was unusual weather here in Lewes, UK, for my Spring flowers, poor things.

After being covered in snow, they gradually reappeared.

And now they just need some sunshine. Well done indomitable spirits!

The post The snow on my Spring flowers brings out their innate gutsiness. appeared first on Wolfie Wolfgang.

Crocuses (Si mavis latina – Croci) on sentry duty in my garden here in Lewes, UK.

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