We listened to a kids story yesterday about how the animals couldn’t ‘keep it in check’ - when spring broke forth - the sheer exuberance and energy of their lives was causing havoc. This morning me and my lot here have the opposite energy - we are low, quiet, reading books, looking long out windows, and generally moving, slowing - not the spring in our step one might suppose.

In watching spring arrive here at Rivenwood - it clearly is not a hurried procession - it seems planned, intentional, waiting for its ripeness, for fullness of the temperatures until it will break forth, uplift earth and reach for the sun. So, perhaps all this talk of spring fervour - has either yet to hit - or it is a slow rising - like the sap in trees - like the twisted roots of the corn seeds - mangling themselves together as they push up off the seed raising mix and then eventually find their footing and erect a clear, sky bound green shoot.

This garden is amazing to me - more amazing each day. On Friday I found a Kotare Honey peach seedling beneath its parents - a honey, richly scented fruit abounding in juice. I half dug, half pulled it up and transplanted this gangly child equidistance from her parents - cutting back past years growth, now dry bracken - it becomes the mulch for this year’s growth.

That adage of: ‘Put it on the compost’ - put your failings, your hurts, your disappointments - ready to be food for the next season of your growth - makes more visceral sense to me now - semi-reluctant gardener.