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They arrived with the spring equinox on March 20th…
*
… days hot in the sun, but ice-cold in shade, as if the air came straight off a snow field…
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…yet so enlivening, it had us one day walking (instead of driving) to the builders’ merchants on the edge of town…
…spotting, as we went, wild cherry blossom, the bright white blackthorn that is everywhere in drifts on farm hedgerows, and then the distant green of wheat fields and fresh grassland.
*
Meanwhile, the town lanes and gardens have been aglow with magnolias, daffodils, pussy willow, forsythia, camellias, fire-red japonica…
…and the cherry plum by the house has day by day been turning from pink to bronze, as blossom flutters off and gives way to leaves.
*
And so the Shropshire countryside has been drowsing in a haze of vernal glamour: an earth dream of a perfect spring come to life.
The blue sky days turned into weeks, three to be exact. Long enough for us to grow used to blissful weather, to think it ours forever.
In the garden, our faces turned often to the sun, we noted the little pear tree begin to flower…
*
…and the old apple tree by the compost bin burst with buds…
…that then begin to open…
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…just in time for Sunday’s full moon and a complete change in the weather…
*
Today there is grey sky, racing rain clouds and a piercing wind that gusts down the chimneys. It feels like winter when we walk to the shops, clad in sweaters, quilted coats and woolly hats. We’re cast adrift in seasonal confusion. Bereft. Abandoned by spring. How could she do this when we so loved the sun, the light, the crisp air?
Ah, well. The weather people say the wind should lessen tomorrow, all but doubling temperatures from 6 to a soaring 11 degrees C. There might also be a view of the sun on Easter Sunday morning, but little to see in the following week. Instead, there will be rain, of which this gardener and the nation’s farmers are much in need. So it goes. All chop and change. Perhaps blue sky spring will be back in May.
copyright 2025 Tish Farrell
Lens-Artists: abandoned This week Anne sets us the topic ‘abandoned’. Please see her post for more serious cases of abandonment.
I love your take on the theme. Abandoned is so true. Yesterday we were hammered by heavy rain and wind, tulips snapping in their prime, woodburner having to be lit. I was very happy with those blue sky days, even if accompanied by the cold north wind.
Yes, there were some sharp wind days along with the blue. But nothing like this latest bluster. So sorry for your tulips.
Wonderful take on this challenge Tish! I think we all get abandoned by the weather. We are having the same sort of Spring. You never know how to dress, so I just wear layers that I can peel off as the day warms up. Take care!
So happy you liked this, Anne. And yes, definitely layers are a necessity. Where would one be without vests, sleeved and sleeveless, and all on at once.
👍
I love your challenge response, Tish! First I’ve seen focusing on the weather. It fits surprisingly well!
Many thanks, John. We did get so revved up with all the sunshine. It’s disappearance is a touch dispiriting. But it will be back!
Interesting take on the abandoned theme. Great photos.
Thanks, Rebecca.
You’ve expressed so well – in words and images – the joy of those blue sky weeks and the contrast with what’s come after. Abandonment indeed!
At least the gale has gone today. And even the sun has done a spot of shining, but it was a bit depressing having to wrap up like winter all over again.
I know! We all got out of the habit.. Still. Ne’er cast a clout till May be out and all that.
Come to think of it, I’ve hung on to my vest throughout our supposed summers for a few years now.
Me too! We must be becoming dear little old ladies.
Surely not 🙂
What a beautiful set here! Excellent photos.
Many thanks, Egídio.
Those crisp blue skies and gorgeous bloomings are a treat.
Definitely a treat, Pam 🙂
Gorgeous blue sky spring preview, three weeks’ worth! Lucky you. What do the weather people know anyhow. Love that one with the clouds on the full moon signaling change. Act 2 style…
Yep, three weeks’ worth, and there we are wanting more. And you’re spot on about the weather people. It’s all change again today – wind nearly gone, sun back. Out in the garden. Yippee!
Yippee is right! While the gettin’s good as we say in these parts. Get it while the gettin’s good.
What an amazingly clever way to work the challenge into your glorious spring post Tish. Not to worry, it will return and you’ll appreciate it all the more due to the teasing it provided earlier!
You are right. We will indeed appreciate spring’s return, Tina. Many thanks 🙂
How beautiful are your flowers and how I wish I could see some blooming around here! It will come. It’s just really slow getting started this year. It was a brutal winter and so far, a cold, gray, rainy stretch of weather more like winter than spring. And to prove it? The flowers are apparently on “hold.” I’m sure spring will show up, but maybe not until May.
It can be v. lowering when the cold-grey-wetness seems to go on and on. Wishing you some sunshine days.
I love your, to me, nostalgic glimpse of spring as I remember it from the 1950’s, 60’s. The photos and words take me back to those days. Sorry it didn’t last very long, hopefully it has not abandoned you for ever
After all my whinging the weather gods took pity, and completely changed the forecast. Or at least they have today. Back in the garden with some cloudy sunshine 🙂
Pleased to hear that
Those blue skies look imported! But of course, you have Brexit so I guess they must be indigenous.
😉
First chilly morning over here. Warmed up a bit since we got up and now quite pleasant on the stoep as I eat breakfast… but winter is on its way.
Lovely photos, Tish. Can you believe it is almost a year since we were over there?
Where does the time go?
Goodness. Where did that year go? And yes those skies did look imported. I think they were in a way. Apparently the cold air was coming from Sweden, and it somehow heightened the colour of everything. HiDef all round.
A clever take on the theme 🙂 And with lovely photos of magnolia, blossom etc. I especially love your cherry plum! The sun and blue skies have returned here in London, for now at least, but it’s not as warm as it was. Still, I think we’re having a pretty good spring overall, after a miserable early March.
Good that things are looking up your way. It’s the wind that is so irksome, but we’re having a break from it today, and a spot of sun between cloud.
What’s not to love about some blue sky days?
Indeed. And such blue too.
😊😊
My favourite time of year, perfectly captured in your photographs, Tish
Cheers, Ian. Happy spring!
That is the lovely reward of struggling through winter… “Here comes the sun!”
Back to cold, wet wind today, though. Very shivery.
Time for a fire in the “cheminée.”
Definitely!
This time last year we having the roof replaced, and it was wet and windy then. But G. kept all the hundred year old roof battens, and we’re still burning them on the log stove!
Great. Wood should be used as much as possible. We bought a country house an hour away from Mexico city. There is a chimney. Which we use in the winter. Any wood cut out of the garden is recycled for the fireplace.
Spring in Bloom. 😀 … we’re still waiting for the last of the snow to melt here … le sigh. 🙂
A unique and clever take on the theme, Trish! Love the spring images!
Many thanks, John.
Beautiful photos, beautiful writing…
“… drowsing in a haze of vernal glamour…” Exquisite!
Thank you so much, Ana.
Yes, the weather is certainly fickle, we all must adapt.
Yes, I guess the weather always has been fickle and we humans still go on craving our own versions of some regularly ordered ‘reality’.
The weather has been all over the place this year, so cold yet again. Lovely photos, Tish.
Thanks, Sofia. And yes, when that wind gets up. Brrrr…
So blue!
So very blue