Perfect green
Every year it amazes me, though really perhaps I should be used to it by now, this sudden greening over of everything, starting just now in the garden and in the gardens around, and in the streets I walk down, where the chestnut tree leaves come out.
In the garden, the blackbirds have already had one brood, probably because of the mild weather, and two juvenile blackbirds follow the adults around the garden, demanding feeding. While the female blackbird starts a second nest, carrying in to the ivy on the wall huge beakfuls of the grasses and mosses and foliage she has gathered. Her nesting activity is energetic and vigorous and committed, and the gardener sitting nearby, having a rest and a cup of tea, feels quite lazy by comparison.
The akebia quinata is all fluttering new green, with tiny purple flowers between that seem dull purple until the light catches them in the morning and then they're all glowing.
Yesterday was my sister's birthday - always thought of, even though she's gone. I've lost track now of how old she would have been this year - 40-something. It doesn't matter. 61 years ago on the 9 April my grandmother died of the same disease that killed my sister. This time of the year when the buds are bursting I think about both of them even more than usual, and how important it is just to see another season, another spring.
posted - Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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