Cold Comfort

Frosted mornings, blossom and eggs…

Jack Frost has taken April by the scruff of the neck. I can’t remember a time when the blossom was so pegged back as it is this year. A bit like us I suppose, we are Covid pegged! As opposed to clothes pegged, which I suspect would also be unpleasant but perhaps not so long lived! The garden is in suspense, the buds are fat but hesitant, nevertheless I find myself mentally whirring forwards to a bumper crop of fruit. I am being dragged from sleep much earlier thanks to the rosy pink sunrises and crisp clear skies. The coral tinted light dances on the wardrobe doors, the dreadful louvered ones that we swore we’d change.

The grass is crunchy underfoot first thing, the air is pure and fridge like. The edges of each blade of grass and the young buttercup leaves are crystallised. All the fields have been harrowed this week, I love the lines in the grass, like when you rub velvet the wrong way. The air smells so sweet, it’s intoxicating, wild violets, grass thatch blended with scented narcissi drifting on the breeze.

Eggs for breakfast, the loveliest colour, TOM* puts them in a bowl that looks perfect . He knows this will make me happy and I am in love with the kindness of his small, thoughtful touches. There’s a great deal of comfort to be gleaned from eggs, their shape and colour for a start! But it’s those glorious yolks that really are a wonder, nature designs the most incredible things. A boiled egg and buttery soldiers seems to cure most melancholia.

I am working again, slowly but surely things are returning. I have had the great delight of another collaboration with Wildflower Magazine. Look out for the Spring Summer issue, I loved writing this feature for them. Sometimes words come spilling out and I’m startled, as I hadn’t realised they were there, already fully formed. Other times, I like to research, study and read my way into a piece. On this occasion it was the babbling brook! Oh and by the way, those absolutely beautiful mugs were made by the wonderful Sophie Steen. Check out more of her incredible work here.

Yellow seems to be having a moment, have you noticed? My instagram feed is full of glorious images with beautiful light, daffodil varieties blended and planted in great swathes or rapturously presented in beautiful vessels. I am glad as it smacks of hope don’t you think? Speaking of hope I hope you can come back soon, I will have much to share from my day out at Great Dixter and Perch Hill.

*TOM- “The Old Man”