Harbingers

For some reason January just doesn't suit me.
It's not Seasonal Affective Disorder or anything, just that the new year always feels like a gaberdine raincoat that's far too big and baggy and I wallow around in it for a while feeling all wrong, out of step and in danger of tripping over all day long.
That's until February when I start to grow into it a bit and by March I hardly notice I'm wearing it.
Perhaps this goes back to my childhood.
I was bought a navy gaberdine raincoat when I was about six with plenty of room to grow into.I didn't grow much until I was about fourteen by which time it was still functioning as a mini gaberdine raincoat as per the fashion and with the belt buckled around the back as you did.
It just would not wear out, they don't make them like that nowadays
I think it's a getting older thing and just about finding my stride with another year up and running, takes a while, so I gathered in some harbingers of spring around the house to remind me it's really on its way.
I was going to be extremely clever if not innovative and go out and take an ongoing set of pictures of the currently empty space on top of the Devon bank along the lane where a huge clump of snowdrops emerges faithfully year on year. I thought I could creatively catch them at optimum moments as they peeked through the layer of leaves and then flowered. But it's been raining non-stop here, the lane is very muddy and the hedge is high and overgrown, so I've risk-assessed that project and rejected it for now.There was every chance I'd trip over my big baggy raincoat and fall off at the exact moment that the only tractor to pass the house this week came by.
Meanwhile I have found some early shop-bought daffodils, I'd like to think they were Cornish and local but in the end, they are daffodils, they are brightening up the kitchen table so I'm afraid I don't care where they come from.

Then a little bunch of red freesias because they always have the best scent, flower arranging not my forte, plonk and place is my motto.

And while I'm flaunting a finished piece of quilting I must mention that after eighteen months I've reached the top of the waiting list to join a lovely little village quilting group about eight miles away across the border in Cornwall. My purpose is to complete a few unfinished projects before I start some new ones and when you have a very sociable group of about thirty others watching your progress and an exhibition to enter that's incentive enough.They put me through my paces on Thursday so no excuses now.
Finally an ongoing pot of spring for my desk, some Tete-a-Tete daffodils.I can keep you fully informed of their progress without risking life and limb.