It’s been crazy weather today, wind, sunshine that actually gave warmth and many, many wild hail showers. I was delighted to watch a horizontal spider’s web outside the kitchen window act as a hammock for hailstones. If you look carefully at the photo, you can make out the strands of web holding the hailstones. 
A bank of primroses
Our border of primroses is coming on.
The daffodils we bought last Saturday in town are lovely. I usually prefer single blossoms but these doubles are really beautiful. I think we were told that they are Tamar Fire but these seem more delicately coloured than the ones I find online.
This afternoon I listened to a wonderful programme, ArtWorks on BBC radio 4: Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent and regular visitor to Afghanistan, was talking to female Afghan poets about the landay: a 22 syllable Pashtun verse form they create, perform and share to speak of love, sex, war and hardship. There are 9 syllables on the first of the two line poem and 13 on the second. The poems were very moving and the programme is well worth finding on BBC Sounds. 
I made some Fork Cookies this morning, so called because you flatten the ball of dough with the tines of a fork.I then dipped them in dark chocolate. They are scrummy!
Our tub of tulips is flowering already, seems quite early. I’m loving the delicacy of the green and pink bits.
Both the flowers below were presents, the pretty pale pink one from my dear friend and colleague Sharon, lost in 2024 and the deep pink primulas bought for us by LiveWires 5 and 6 who planted them for us in the allotment. We dug them up to bring them home once we gave up our tenancy.
Today the allotment is no longer ours but our fellow allotmenteers from the last few years came to visit Community Roots to hear about no-dig and to learn all about the garden. It was a very damp and fascinating morning which was greatly enjoyed by everyone. Here are some of them after the tour and after having worked in the new orchard.
It’s St David’s Day and here are more daffodils to honour my Welsh heritage. My Mum’s father was Welsh. They really were nodding in the breeze and the rain as I took the video through the window.
Having finished the curtain for the back door, I had reason to go to my box of bits to make something else and re-discovered a piece of the Laura Ashley fabric I showed you the other day. There was enough to make a curtain so I have made another one for the back door in a fabric we love more.
This was the view from the dining room window as I was sewing this afternoon. 
If you have seen the film, Hamnet, you may have wept over the twins. Having twins myself, when I read the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, I found the chapter heartbreaking. One of our twins was very ill as a tiny baby and when we visited him in hospital every day, I always put his twin sister in the cot beside him. I love this poem by Helen Farish.
My Suffragette garden is coming into bloom, purple, white and green crocus plants.
You may remember that last week we sowed many trays of tomatoes of various sorts. Today they were up and ready for transplanting and I was so busy doing that I forgot to take any photos. The following photo of Gardeners’ Ecstasy is from the internet, not mine!
We send our love to our friends in Ukraine as the war reaches a 4th anniversary. We remember with great fondness the friends we made among the Hooligan Art Community. Here are some photos from 2023 when they were visiting.
Slava Ukraine!
Today we woke to rain but in no time the sun had come out and it was warm so we were able to get into the garden.
Steps up tp the garden lined with Tête à Tête
The Armandii, planted last year, is flowering well..
I love the programme The Verb on BBC radio 4 on Sunday afternoons. Today Ian McMillan was talking to Katie Clarke, Director of Literature at The Reader organisation, about reading poetry with people who have dementia and the magic that can happen just as it does when my choir sings in care homes. One of the poems she described as touching a patient was a poem I had never heard before. I hope you enjoy it as I did.
Happiness by Raymond Carver,
So early it’s still almost dark out.
I’m near the window with coffee,
and the usual early morning stuff
that passes for thought.When I see the boy and his friend
walking up the road
to deliver the newspaper.They wear caps and sweaters,
and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.
They are so happy
they aren’t saying anything, these boys.I think if they could, they would take
each other’s arm.
It’s early in the morning,
and they are doing this thing together.They come on, slowly.
The sky is taking on light,
though the moon still hangs pale over the water.Such beauty that for a minute
death and ambition, even love,
doesn’t enter into this.Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
any early morning talk about it.https://allpoetry.com/poem/8520185-Happiness-by-Raymond-Carver
Do go to BBC Sounds and listen to the programme. It was really moving.
Despite even more rain, there was a brave buttercup in the garden and the tête à tête in the front garden have suddenly brightened up.
Many years ago when her children were still little, mine rather more grown, my kid sister sent me the poem about not spending time dusting when life offers so many more opportunities especially when one’s children are young. I’ve always loved it but had forgotten about it until a dear friend at Roots reminded me of it. Thank you P.
Dust if You Must by Rose Milligan written in 1998.
Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?Dust if you must, but there’s not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.Dust if you must, but the world’s out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.
I wondered if I had posted the poem before in the almost 15 years I have been writing this blog and so put the word ‘dust’ into my search bar. It was such a delight to read back over so many posts that I had forgotten.
The flowers on the first stem of the Amaryllis have finished and the second stem is so top heavy we’ve had to put it on the floor to lean against the arm of the chair! It is still remarkably lovely six weeks after planting. I’m hoping there’s at least another week of loveliness in it.
The Tête à Tête miniature daffodils are appearing all over the garden. I love the ones in the monkey planter.
Photo from 2018
I’ve been browsing again through an old paperback about life in Cornwall 100 years ago and was amused by the description of the wet weather in Cornwall – plus ça change!
From “Exploring Cornwall 100 Years Ago” Selected and Edited by Stuart D. Ludlum
It was so lovely today to take a walk around the garden between showers and wearing wellies and to spot some signs of Spring. Some flowers were quite rain damaged but here are some Snowdrops and two kinds of Crocus.
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