You can’t have failed to notice that things are a’changing

The evenings are getting lighter, the temperatures slightly warmer and a couple of the braver birds are up with the lark for vocal exercise.  On second thoughts, maybe they ARE the lark.  The official start of springtime is 20th March, (re clocks: Spring forward, Fall back, makes more sense in the USA) but there ARE daffodils in the shops and adverts for Easter so as far as I’m concerned it’s on the way.

At this time of year I begin to get twitchy.  It’s almost warm enough to brave the garden, which generally comes with an urge to grab a notepad and start planning what to grow.  This year I shall finally Do It Properly.  No longer will it be just a few sorry weeds and some brave scrappy marigolds.  Instead, I shall waft around my veg plot with a straw hat and wicker basket, plucking nature’s bounty from the laden boughs and filling my kitchen with delicious home-grown produce.  Living as I do in a large City I’m a little bucolically challenged, but this doesn’t stop the fantasies of fat, red tomatoes warming in the sun next to tubs of sweet-smelling basil….assuming I can locate them at sufficient altitude to be out of range for dog-pee.

Along with this yearning for the outdoors goes the firm belief that it’s time to get fit.  Of course the only reason I haven’t been on a daily jog is because it’s too damned cold and I might slip on patches of ice or develop hypothermia from the vicious Siberian wind.  Otherwise I’d be out there pounding the pavements on a daily basis.  No kidding.  Two of my friends have already complained that we are approaching bikini season and, to be honest, it probably is just about time to shed the hibernation blubber and step elegantly into my flimsy summer frocks and strappy sandals.  Admittedly this means giving up the red wine, chocolate and casseroles that have kept me going through the interminable cold, but now the sun is out this won’t be a problem at all.  I was only eating them to keep warm.  Yes, really.  Stop sniggering now.

Trouble is, although every indication is that Spring is imminent, it hasn’t actually landed.  Those two whole days of sunshine were just a cruel teaser, and after filling you (and me) with hope, gave way to another spell of grey skies and sharp frosts, killing off the first hopeful seedlings and dragging my sun drenched daydreams back to a sofa and an open fire.  Well, best not to be too hasty then. No point starting all that gardening and fitness just to be scuppered by the last throes of an arctic winter.

I’ll just sit under this rug and finish the bottle of red.  I’m sure it will warm up soon and then I’ll be out there with the best of ‘em.  You just wait and see!