Glory Days

What weather! Several straight days of full sunshine and the ground glittering with frost, making it all but impossible to stay indoors. I did an hour or so's gardening, and I can't describe the joy of working outside again, clearing some of the winter's detritus of dead foliage and scattered leaves. Not a blade of grass moved, the air so still you could hear the dormice snuffling in their hidden nests. Almost. It was magical, a word I may use to near destruction, but it still applies as much now as the first time I penned it. The pond was so frozen that several smashes with the rake failed to pierce its carapace. Later, sitting in the hot summerhouse with Hugo, I looked around with pleasure and excitement. There's work to be done when things warm up a bit, but nothing like the labour of the past three years. I came across a photo taken in the summer, and I could scarcely believe it was my garden. You don't really see the progress you've made when it's ongoing, never ending. But here was the evidence, and I must admit even I was impressed. And this is only the beginning.