
I have to say that I didn’t want to come in to work this morning. It didn’t help that Furtle has today and tomorrow off. Admittedly she will be working her socks off catching up on her coursework and writing her essay, but it does mean that she didn’t have to drag herself out of bed this morning.
In the meantime, I have noticed that this year, there is no consensus amongst local plant life about the arrival of “Green Day”, the day when the number of leaves and buds and general lush greenness overtakes the grey-brown of bare boughs and branches (was that a hint of poesy there?). Walking down the road to the tube station this morning I noticed a great deal of blossom in evidence on the trees, but only small buds. Opposite the station, on the edge of the Dollis Valley Park, Spring seemed well-advanced: Green Day appears to have arrived there at least, but with a couple of notable exceptions, the trees and bushes a hundred yards away (further north – is this significant?) past the bridge and on the station itself, Winter still seems to hold sway, the trees clearly still somnolent and unprepared for the Spring.
It was similar last weekend when we went out to Reading for the wedding. Out of the loop of the M25 along the Thames Valley, Spring seemed rather further advanced than it is in the city – even the city suburbs.
Whenever Green Day arrives unequivocally, there is change afoot: I shall now take an antihistamine in the hopes of de-clogging my tubes.