The very first petals of the new season’s blossom unfurled last Friday. The almond tree by the Hayshed is our gauge of change from winter to spring. We anticipate these first flowers each year with a sense of excitement as well as trepidation, as they often indicate that wind is on the way and true to form, we’ve experienced howling gales on two occasions this past week. Hopefully they’ve passed, so that the tree can reach its pinnacle of a cloud of blossom, juxtaposed against the rusty old tin roof (and stay there for a week or so for us to enjoy!). Some years, we’ve lost it all in a day, but whichever way you look at it….we’re slipping into spring now at a rate of knots. Hooray!
PS a note following yesterday’s post: I did indeed receive an email from John, who says there’s a proposal to use sunflower seed patterns in the primary school maths curriculum (now if only they’d thought of that when I was at school, I just may have paid more attention!!!).