Last week Joann and I went on an expedition to collect willow switches with which to plant a living willow fence at the bottom of our land. It became a bit of a mission when we had to clamber through soft snow of more than a foot deep… carrying our bundles of sticks with our lively pup either pulling on the rope tying them together, or wrapping me up very effectively with her lead. But – it was a rare day of winter sunshine and it was beautiful to be outside nonetheless. The area we were gathering from is now completely flooded with melt water.

It was the Spring equinox on Sunday – meaning that we have twelve hours of dark and twelve hours of light, and at last a couple of patches of snow had melted enough for us to start preparing the garden. Joann is our specialist gardener volunteer so it’s been a frustrating wait for the sight of soil – and believe me – you don’t want to be digging in frozen ground – it might as well be concrete. She is only now with us for another week so I hope we manage to get the beds dug and planted before she leaves us.
Our other late winter visitors were both brave and hardy – the temperature inside and out has been particularly low, and with no central heating, simply keeping our living spaces warm turned out to be their main task. We have worked our way through nearly all of the wood from the fallen barns. Though the winter wonderland looked so pretty, life was harsh. Our (extensive) hallways hovered around freezing point, and we became very accustomed to indoors dressed for outdoors – woolly hats are fine things, but balaclavas are better as bed wear as they don’t fall off. We should not know that. I never knew I would be so glad to see the back of winter.
Today the sun is shining and the temperatures are mild. We are finally able to get on with tasks in the garden. Our permaculture specialist spent a lot of time planning, and now at last we’re able to get our hands dirty in this worm rich soil.

The lesson – don’t paint when it’s below zero. Stupid.