Spring has sprung!

Cherry Blossom

It is a beautiful spring Saturday here in the Chiltern Hills and the Vale of Aylesbury. Outside I’m inspired by my own personal talisman of spring, the Cherry Tree in the front garden whose cherry blossoms are even more vigorous and bountiful after the long cold winter. These blossoms and the bulbs, primroses and alpines are now reproaching me that I need to get the garden sorted. Soon we can expect the tottering figure of Hortus Praetorius* to be scratching about in that disorganised way of his.



For beautiful as this Saturday morning is it is a strange morning here. It is hazy on the horizon and going out this morning there is a fine dust on the car and a faint acrid smell in the air. It is quiet, with not a plane in the sky or an airport open across the UK because of airborne ash from a volcano over a thousand miles away in Iceland. Hundreds of thousands of stranded air passengers who hoped for lift-off this weekend will remain grounded until next week at the earliest as the plume of volcanic ash shut down most of European airspace yesterday. A telling example of our fragility on this earth in the face of the power of nature and all the more reason to enjoy what is good in nature such as this spring morning and the flowers in the garden. So enjoy these pictures of the flowers this morning and some spring quotes. You have to do something when you can’t fly anywhere!





Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" - Robin Williams

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. - Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go. - Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe



Hee that is in a towne in May loseth his spring. - George Herbert

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. - Charles Dickens



It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! - Mark Twain

Hoe while it is spring, and enjoy the best anticipations. It is not much matter if things do not turn out well. - Charles Dudley Warner


Daffodil

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
- Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"


Grape Hyacinth

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. - Ruth Stout

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow. - Proverb
Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush. - Doug Larson

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day. - W. Earl Hall



If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. - Anne Bradstreet

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
- Robert Browning



April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. - William Shakespeare

Spring is always a delightful time in the Chiltern Hills when the snowdrops, primroses, bluebells and daffodils appear in the undulating wooded hills. This is why this special place needs to be protected from High Speed Rail – more of this anon.



See also;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/04/chiltern-spring.html

Hortus Praetorius* = Latin for Head Gardener.


Wild Primrose