Anticipating the arrival of Spring
LIZ CHARNELL
Each year around this time we all anticipate the arrival of Spring for real. In our farming and gardening world that means there might be a casual thought or two as to when the cows might be turned out, or the dates of the TB test are confirmed (we all dread that!). On the sheep side Gala talks about getting ready for lambing as the ‘due date’ gets ever closer. Lou with the pigs is mulling over where she might put them when it’s dry enough for them to go out (as well as celebrating the most recent arrival of 7 piglets for GingerElla), and Maya is wondering if it is dry enough to get out on the land to spread muck, plough and cultivate.
For us in the garden (at moments) we feel overwhelmed by a full propagator of spring salads to plant out in the tunnels. We are tired of all the layers of thermals required to stay warm in the morning. The spring water in the hose to wash the leaves is still freezing which is always a good test as to whether there really is a change in the overall temperature. If it stays dry for two days we soon get caught out by the immediate return to claggy underfoot conditions if there is even a little rain or, like last week, snow. Our spirits yet again deflated.
Winter has felt endless this time around. Maybe it was the early snow in December. Maybe the persistent and torrential rain that followed. There doesn’t feel like there has been much sunshine and even though we have germinating tomatoes and peppers as well as all the lettuces, spinach, spring onions, flowers and salad leaves, we are not truly believing that we’re on the other side.
I feel these things sit on our horizons in a way that the beginning of a new school term used to loom large – but unlike school we are at the behest of nature and cannot plant outside, move animals to grass, cultivate lands or change the temperature of the polytunnels until the season shifts. (Gala will have to lamb no matter what – there is no shifting that due date!)
Either way, the sense of anticipation of the new season creeps in when the sun does offer a little more warmth, when the over wintered crops respond to the little more light and when we awake to tumultuous birdsong. Whatever nature may have in store for us this year and in those moments of knowing winter is really nearly over, we sigh with relief and, dare I say, smile with excitement and trepidation for the season ahead.
