“Spring is nature’s way of saying let’s party.” — Robin Williams

1st March arrived as the start of the meteorological spring. Even though the thermometer did not reflect it, it brought a feeling of optimism to the countryside and everyone around. The promise of longer days, sunshine and of course the blossoms and blooms of the gardens up and down the country.

The gardening programmes on the telly have begun with Spring Watch and Gardening World. The garden centres and nurseries have filled their forecourts with bags of soil, peat, wood chips and what have you! In the back are trays of early spring and border plants like crocuses, snowdrops, primroses, pansies and of course the old faithful – daffodils.

As you drive through the towns, villages and even the cities, you find vast swathes of budding daffodils promising to bring a riot of yellow on the sides of roads, in public parks and just about everywhere, even on the edge of fairways in the golf course. The Daffodil is such a feel good flower – with the golden yellow blooms in the sunshine and breeze, coming in all sizes and shades.. bringing the promise of good weather and changing seasons.

Growing up in India where the seasons are not as well defined as here in the UK, spring was welcomed with the festival of Holi – the festival of colour and love, a welcoming gesture to the season of abundance, Basant Utsav ( spring festival), a goodbye to the winter months and dreary days.. As kids we played with water balloons and pistols and threw coloured powder on each other. I have very fond memories on water balloon🎈 wars between the boys👦👦 and girls👧👧 in our building which always ended with us girls getting totally soaked 😄as we were in the minority. All in all, it was so much fun something kids of today never experience.

Photographing the magic of spring has been on our agenda but predicting UK weather comes with a degree of uncertainty. A trip to the city of Aberdeen gave us the chance to see the crocus beds in the city – purple and white colours on the side of the road and in public parks. In the coming weeks I hope to get a chance to visit the woodlands to see the coming of spring and how nature welcomes the season of revival, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection and regrowth.

The coming of spring gives a feeling of promise and wellbeing. The depressing period of winter with cloudy, dreary and wet days are over. The birds are chirping and building nests , getting ready to bring new life into this world, the trees and plants in the garden are full of new leaves slowly appearing.

Today doesn’t seem a good day to post a blog on spring… but with the equinox not far, the spring sunshine should appear…I’m very optimistic 😁 What a wonderful feeling !!!