An ode to spring
Spring
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Spring 〰️
When we lived in London, spring wasn’t really a season I had considered. A weird sort of in-between that bridged winter and summer, the usually inclement weather and very few visual changes to the city landscape meant that spring was usually just a countdown to the summer months. Sure, I might have noticed and appreciated the lighter mornings and evenings, scatterings of daffodils here and there but I never really revelled in the time of year.
Out in the countryside, however, springtime is impossible to ignore. It is like an assault on all your senses. The extra hours of light and warmth shocks your system and all of a sudden the landscape unfurls from barren winter torn trees and gorse, giving way to lush greenery and bright blooms. Untidy crocuses bursting out of pots to say a little hello after hibernating underground for so many months filling the clean crisp air with delicate floral scents. Or equally, pungent manure! The occasional day where the biting cold is replaced with mild lukewarm sunshine. Bleating new born lambs cry throughout the night and the renewed singsong of birds blows through the trees.
In turn, we come out of our own hibernation with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Heads full of ideas transpire into longer days designing and crafting in the workshop. The extra light and warmth persuade us on longer walks and days out. Food becomes lighter and we even toy with the idea of eating alfresco, lighting the BBQ and sipping on delicate glasses of Camel Valley sparkling wine.
Here are some of our favourite ways to make the most of spring, our new favourite season.
New life
The fields surrounding our home, farm and workshop are suddenly completely brimming with baby lambs. It’s incredibly joyful to watch them scamper about the fields and definitely keeps our dogs entertained (from a distance!)
Baby cows guarded by protected mothers will soon be a frequent siting on our weekly walk, accompanied by the exquisitely pungent smell of farmers spreading copious amounts of fertiliser to aid spring growth.
Visual changes
Hazy sunny mornings give way to bright and light days, punctuated by loud spring thunder storms. This mix of sunshine and water brings the lifeless winter surrounds back to life. Daffodils are everywhere you turn, lining verges, cascading down hilltops, filling up parks. Crocuses poke their bright heads up through frosty grounds followed by tulips in all their grandeur.
Easter and bank holidays
Before the official British summertime starts, spring brings us the gift of four bank holiday weekends. A four day weekend at Easter, two bumper May bank holidays and extra time off for the Queen’s platinum jubilee.
In season
Spring is not an ideal harvesting time for us amateur growers, but at the moment we’re simply feasting on an abundance of spinach that has emerged victorious from the patch over the last month.
Very soon, our wild walks will be overgrown with wild garlic and we’ll be foraging away making jars and jars of the most pungent, yet delicious, wild garlic pesto to keep us going throughout the year.
Spring greens keep us nourished, as lettuces, rocket, pea shoots and purple sprouting broccoli all shoot up.
Long spring walks
Ever since lockdown, we’ve become avid walkers. Sure, there’s not too much else to do in our neck of the woods, but taking the dogs for a long walk through our ever changing landscape of woodlands, moors and fields and stopping off at a pub or two is such a pleasure.
More light and longer days
Even though spring weather is so tumultuous (as we’re writing the sun has just been quickly replaced by a congregation of grey clouds) the extra hours of light make such a difference.
In winter getting up in the dark and continuing to work when it’s dark, makes us feel much more sluggish and unproductive. Now, tit’s light when we rise and way into the evening thanks to the clock changes helping us to shake off our winter lethargy and surface with extra exuberance, spring in our step.