Seeds grow......

A cold, cold wind is blowing today and I don't like it. Any idea of going outside is out of the question, and I am even tempted to switch the heating on for a while. This is ridiculous. I am sitting here with a fleece around me and a recession heater on my lap. And yet the weather in a day or so will be in the high teens C. Oh well - this is April after all, and I gather it is supposed to be changeable! I have put up my Easter tree. Actually there are two, but the photos of the other one were not stellar, so I will take more later. This is the one at the front door, and it works really well this year. It is not too big. Last year, I kept catching my bag on the one I had, and it ended up on the floor more than once, so this year I wanted something more manageable! And after Easter, I will take off the decorations and leave the birds and bows and flowers for Spring until the end of May. And then it will be time for the Summer decorations! No time to get bored round here.

Sunset last night was a surprise. A lovely one. I had no idea the skies were so beautiful until I looked over the hedge and this is what I saw. So today should have been a sunny bright day. It may have been at 0600hrs. Not right now. The wind is blowing the foul weather in at speed. That does it, I am shivering. The heating goes on.

On the garden front, I am happy to report that the spinach is growing, as are the lettuces and peas too. Potatoes have popped through for the first time, and will be covered again in the next day or so. Gem squash, cucumbers, beans and three kinds of tomatoes are all doing well indoors, and so are all the flower seedlings. I may have enough lobelia for the entire county. I sprinkled seeds and then read the packet. It says approx 2500 seeds. Right. That would be two thirds of the packet in my seed tray then. Potting them on is going to be a challenge, I can see. Broad beans are also in.

I was sitting thinking this morning how tending my garden is such a simple thing, and yet so profound. I am not going to make the connections, join the dots here - you are welcome to do that if you choose - but just think a moment......

I filled clean pots with new soil. Special soil. I planted or scattered small minuscule seeds into that fresh soil, and then I covered them, patted them down. Then I watered them and set them down in their pot to grow. Every day, I go and check on them. I cover them with fleece if the temperature is going to plummet, and I water them, keep them clear of weeds. I pop the pot into the sun so the soil can warm up.

Day after day, I check and water. Day after day, there is nothing, and yet I don't give up. I just keep doing the same thing every single day. I smile, you see, because I know they will grow one of these days. I KNOW those seeds are alive under the dark soil. I know what they will become in the fullness of time.

And then the day comes when there is the slightest stirring of the top soil, and then suddenly, a small green head bursts through, and shakes off the soil. And still I water, and look after it. It grows stronger each day, bigger. And then one day, the tightly closed head unfurls, and the beautiful flower bursts into the sunlight. Or the fruit or vegetable.

The gardener's work - my work - is not done though. Sometimes the plant will need to be moved, or staked. It may need feeding, and it will always need watering. More than ever, as it grows bigger. And oh, the joy it brings. The smiles. It is the knowledge of what that little innocuous seed can become one day which makes the work such a pleasure. The seed doesn't know.

But I do.