Life in a Square | May

As so often in May, we went from freezing nights to summer temperatures in a matter of a couple of days. Frist everything is frozen, and you don’t believe there ever will be life again, and then everything is green.

It’s crazy.

Compare the two images of the river below. One was taken at the beginning of the month, and the other about a week ago.

We go from mostly grey…

…to green.

May has been lovely, but I’ve mostly been in a bubble. I’ve walked along the river with the dog, done some sporadic gardening, but very little compared to how much I usually do in May, and I’ve written quite a lot.

The shining sun and warm days have, for the most part, gone me by, but I’ve snapped the occasional photo of a clear blue sky.

On the 12th, we buried my mother-in-law. She passed away before my mother back in the autumn, but she wanted a spring ceremony, so we’ve held off on it. Now it was time, though, and she wanted us all to pick flowers in the wild.

Normally, there would’ve been lilies of the valley, but it was too cold this year. I picked a bouquet of wood anemones instead, but the other day, when I walked into the kitchen, hubby had picked some lilies of the valley and placed them on the table 🥰 They are my favourite flower.

Life in a Square | April

April is coming to an end, and it’s almost always the month when we go from winter to hope LOL Normally, we’ll have a few nights dipping down below freezing in May too, but things are starting to get green.

Green-ish, at least. I was at my sister’s for a few days and the difference between here and the coast is huge this time of year. There things were green for real.

We started the month with ice and floodings, the spring flood making it impossible for us to walk the paths we normally walk, and we had to stop several times so Littlest could empty her wellies of water – this not walking where we normally walk… you don’t know until you’ve tried. Several times.

But flowers started to peek up. Blue Anemones are special to me. They remind me of my mother. Where I grew up, they’re a protected flower, but Mum has some in a corner of her guarding, and I can’t tell you how many times she lectured us about not being allowed to pick them.

Then I met my husband, who’s from a different area of the country where blue anemones aren’t a protected flower, and he couldn’t see why we couldn’t pick them. Now I have a lot of blue anemones growing in and near the garden, and here, where we live now, they aren’t protected, but I’m protective of them anyway.

And now, towards the end of the month, there are wood anemones everywhere.

The hens are laying eggs like crazy, and one morning we found a fairy egg. A fairy egg is a tiny egg that the hen lays when something has gone wrong in the process. We had one a couple of years ago that was even smaller than this one.

And the baby chicks are growing. They’re curious little critters now they fly out of the crate every chance they get. They have yet to be let out in the garden, but I think if we get a warm day soon, I will open for them.

And with warmer weather and longer days, we’re spending more time outside, to the dog’s delight. Soon, the garden work will start. Hubby has ordered soil and bought me some new garden beds, so soon I’ll be complaining about aching muscles 😆

Life in a Square | March

The feeling I have of March is that I haven’t done anything. I think we’ve been in a slump, both hubby and I. Every day has pretty much been the same – get up, hopefully, get some words done, wake the kids, get them on the bus, feed and let out the hens, get a few more words done, walk the dog, lunch, do some admin, connect with the kids as they come home from school, another walk with the dog, start on the food, squeeze in some housework, get the kids into bed, and then do it all over again. And again.

This has resulted in many walks along the river. Cat first, dog second, child third, then the tired ones 😆

We had snow early on in the month.

Then it got cold.

And these last few days, we’ve been wading through water. This morning hubby had to carry the littlest because the water was deeper than her wellies.

But not all has been doom and gloom. At the beginning of the month, we put eggs in the incubator, and last weekend, new feather balls made it out into the world! It’s three breeds we’ve never had before, so it’ll be interesting to see what becomes of them.

 

Tthe coming month, I hope spring will arrive and that I’ll be able to get some seeds in the ground. The apocalypse is near, people! We’ll live off eggs and beans in the future 😆 I really hope that’s my doom and gloom feeling talking and not a premonition.