Despite the fact today is Valentine’s Day, I absolutely love this time of year, even though I know there could still be snow, I was born in a blizzard, but still there is hope. Hope of an early spring. Every year we have a few warm days through January and February, this year we have had more than usual down here on the coast, I get so excited about getting out in the garden. In my mind, I create this wonderful, colourful cottage garden of old. In reality, I plant a few pots with pretty flowers and hope for the best.

I guess that’s my take on life really. I plant seeds of friendship, of new ventures and projects, especially decorating and hope they take. I have always put the quality of friendship above quantity. Same with flowers, I value the ones that survive the first year to go on flowering into the next. I still really crave the wild guys though …the ones that will flower crazy this year, then never be seen again. Yep, I could name a few of them in real life. Last year I planted 6 hanging baskets with nasturtiums, I was warned I’d never get rid of them! Never get rid of them ….non of the buggers flowered……I bought boxes of wildflower seed to sprinkle between my pots, boxes named…..Good for Bees, Friends of the Birds etc. etc. I ended up paying over £10 for 3 red poppies and a handful of cornflowers!

This year I’ll not be so gullible. With the buying of my seeds or my life choices. I already have three pots of primulas that have survived the winter to flower now, the Marguerites that my mother gave me are healthy and throwing out new growth in their pots and the Rosemary cuttings I struck have all taken. Rosemary is for remembrance they say. Well, that tallies as I am still on a quest to regain my lost childhood memories.

As my bulbs stopped flowering last year I planted them in a big tub by the garage. Everything is showing leaves, iris, side by side with crocus, daffodil and tulips. A promise of a colourful spring. I have to admit daffodils and tulips are my favourite flowers. When I have them in vases in my kitchen I know warmer weather is on the way.

Yes, I know I’ve still got my Christmas table cloth on, but this table is in a corner of my kitchen and the cloth has been on since before Covid, but the cheerfulness these flowers bring makes me not care about the aesthetics. How can anything this colourful not make anyone smile?

Talking of smiling, as most of you know, I stopped frequenting Twitter due to a few nasty incidents. I still jump on the feed from time to time to see how everyone is doing and catch up with friends. I was a little bemused the other day when I did this to find my feed was full of blues & twos, highwaymen and a bus driver who had me in hysterics for two days. Apparently all because of my likes. I fear the algorithm is tapping into more than my Twitter feed, which is slightly disconcerting, but I’m willing to run with it for the time being. Most odd. I’m not complaining, though, everyone seems like a breath of fresh air.

I’ve never ventured outside ‘ writing Twitter ‘ before. I thought my few writer friends would get fed up if I started mixing in too many posts about gardening, cooking, crotchet, wax melts and skincare items. Even though the highest number of likes I ever received was in excess of 600 for a post about the doughnuts I’d made! Maybe it is time for a change, just as the seasons change bringing a different outlook to the world, perhaps now it is time for me to embrace change? To speak out about what I want, without fear of humiliation, to actively seek out that that gives me pleasure and reject that which does not. Ass my birthday fast approaches and I do not expect to live past a hundred, I must accept I am middle-aged. Before I start to tumble down the other side of the hill, at an alarming rate, I think I’ll spend some time on the top.

As for Twitter, maybe its time to start widening my horizons, following a bunch of new people and exercising my right to use the block button more……..

Love as usual M. XXX