The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn; God's in his Heaven— All's right with the world! ........................................... Robert Browning

The arrival of Spring is like music to my ears as it is undoubtedly the month that I relish the most.
There are many reasons for this, that slight rise in the temperature, the first splash of colour from the bulbs, the conversation of the birds and most of all the promise of so much to come. It is the same with mornings, first thing you feel you can get so much done, then by lunch you realise that you probably won't achieve all your mornings aspirations and by Tea time you end up struggling to think of anything that you really actually achieved  But, way back in the morning, you had that sweet moment of ignorant bliss when you honestly, really, truly had an absolute belief, that totally lifted your spirit, making you really feel good because you know that you will do great things.

Well it is the same with Spring, to me, in that it is at the beginning of the seasonal year, the promise of new growth and the whole summer to achieve great things. Sadly this euphoria normally takes until mid Autumn before it wanes and the reality of what I have actually achieved compared to what I had planned eventually dawns on me.

However, I guess last year was an anomaly, one that broke the mold that genuinely delivered on that youthful Spring belief. Alison believed that she would find a job which she would really enjoy and that would allow us to move, I believed that I could take the almighty step, nay leap, of giving up my job and we both believed that we could find a house, somewhere in the Country where we would be happy to move to, but at that stage we had no idea where!

It is now a year later and so far Alison has found a job that she really enjoys, finds very rewarding and fulfilling and which has allowed us to move, I did take the almighty step, nay leap, of giving up my job and we both found a house, somewhere in the Country where we were happy to move to.
Neither of us has a single regret (so far!) and even if we do end up regretting the decisions of last year I am sure that many years down the road of life my regrets would have been far bigger that I had not even tried to do this.

"Stupid risks make life worth living."             Homer ....... (Simpson)

So I love Spring because of the promise of new exiting things to come and being deep in the rural heart ofthe British countryside you become so much more in touch with the seasons. You can't help hearing the sounds of Spring, the Wood Pigeons whoo, whoo, whoooing in the tree tops, the Cuckoo and the melodiousness of the dawn chorus.

I have a new garden, one that I have no idea what is gong to shoot up from within its dark loam. So far we have had snow drops, crocus and daffodils, tulips are following fast but there are loads of other bulbs appearing too like Hyacinths and what I think will be a carpet of Bluebells. You see Spring is the commencement of a period of discovery, having a new garden is akin to taking a photograph the old fashioned way, on film, and then watching the picture develop in the dark room. Bit by bit every nuance of the picture appears and finally (after a full years cycle in the case of the garden) you get to see the whole picture, really exciting.

The garden soaked up all the surrounding ambient sounds as I walked around it today. Yes that includes the odd car and lorry but also the sheep bleating which is a delightful noise and again a reminder that we are probably just weeks away from the arrival of the new lambs.

On the way home from Wells-next-the-sea the other day we saw some March Hares in a field of low stubbly fresh green growth. I was not sure exactly which crop it was but rest assured the Hares were literally having a field day, run rabbit, run rabbit, run, run, run...........

So what promise does this Spring offer us? The belief that we will get past all the red tape, that we will get at least one B&B room up and running within the month and that we will get our Annex up and running as a Holiday Cottage, hopefully this year.

Will our hopes all reach their expectation by the years end?      Who knows?

But the optimism of Spring certainly makes me feel that we can achieve it. So come back in a year and ask the question then and I hope I can say, YES....... yes we've achieved everything we set out to do.  We'll see eh........











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