Harbingers

här’bin-jǝr, n a forerunner; a thing which tells of the onset or coming (of something); a pioneer (Chambers)

I’m not sure if I’m noticing more changes in the environment around us because we’re living in the middle of the countryside, whether it’s because I’m spending longer outside or whether it’s simply because this year I’ve got more time to look.

This week, triggered by the warm weather we’ve enjoyed and the increasing amount of sunshine the garden and grounds are bursting into life everywhere. On Thursday the temperature reached 14C and the sun shone all day. 

Tempted out by the warmth were; the first butterfly I’ve seen this year – a brilliant yellow Brimstone, a pair of iridescent black and violet Carpenter bees who had been hibernating in our barn, the first daffodils and – a complete surprise – a bank suddenly turned blue with a carpet of violets that I hadn’t seen before. The roses we bought at Peter Beales on a freezing cold day in December have burst into life along with the red, white and blackcurrant bushes we dug out of a frozen garden centre in Bury St. Edmunds just after Christmas. The buds on the fruit trees from the nursery in Questembert and the ones that were delivered from the UK are swelling – the peach and nectarines look as if they will be the first to flower – and, of course, the grass is growing fast.

And Lucien has started work on his potager – the clearest sign possible that winter is beginning to turn into spring.