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The North Wind doth blow |
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Written by Nigel
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Monday, 30 March 2009 |
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The nursery rhyme tells us that ‘The north wind doth blow and we will have snow…’ well as I can attest that is most certainly true. I know nothing of robins though none being available to comment. Another rhyme assures us that ‘March brings breezes loud and shrill…’ again this is true, although we have no daffodils to be stirred as yet.
 Despite all this spring is here. The light overnight snow rarely lasts beyond midmorning. Today is a wonderful foggy day. I love being out on a day like this and it seems a shame to me that I see so few other people enjoying it. The cool foogy weather seems to keep even the Swedes who love the Great Outdoors – the vast majority in my experience – inside and in doing so I think they miss the beauty of the landscape on a day like this.
What’s so great about days like today? For me, it’s the colours. The mist and the damp have created some wonderfully saturated colours. When you think of the landscape at this time of year, it brings to mind drag dreary colours. I think that people are so bundled up in their parkas and bobble hats that their vision must be impaired.
This is what I see. The trees are wet, so their trunks are a shining dark, the dogwoods become a wonderful red highlight. The pines darken to w wonderful rich green making the contrast to the new spring growth even more marked. The leaf litter is still a light bronze, making a dramatic backdrop for the shoots of wood anemones celandine and wild garlic. The yellow, purple and white crocuses are now poking through the lawns and hedgerows, much to my delight. I can’t help but feel how lucky I am to be able to enjoy the countryside, watching the pants unfold their charms to the few passersby, sharing their colour and beauty with anyone willing to venture outside. This is truly the life.
Around Alledal Spring has set hormones racing and fecundity soaring. We are swamped in eggs of all kinds chicken, ducks and geese. In a moment of weakness I succumbed to temptation and set some Yellow Duck and Skånegås eggs – just to test fertility you understand. The To-Do List is almost as long as my arm and the extra hours of daylight in the evening are going to be much appreciated very soon.
Troy and I paid a visit to the Söderåsen nation Park last week much to his delight it’s always a joy to visit and spend a morning walking through the woods. The branches are still bare, though everywhere swelling buds are in evidence soon everything will be green. |
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