Relax, let's do it...

So we are a couple of days past the Spring Equinox and just a few away from the changing of the clocks (dong, dong, dong). I have to tell you that I'm very pleased, what a long winter that was, long and wet and grey, the type of winter that's guaranteed to bring you down. Hopefully now though the growing warmth and light will make us just a little more cheerful. Ye gods, we bloody need it at the moment with all this terribleness going on. I'll happily sit in my garden and sip a beer (if I can get some), potter around and generally try and stay safe. Going out is risky and I don't want to do it unless I have to (there may be zombies in the town).

Even without the excess of wine and beer (my usual) I'm looking forward to it. I don't do New Year's resolutions but Spring is the mother (as in Mother Earth and not fucker) of all new beginnings (yes, I've gone soft). But I'm fixed on doing something with this special time. I'm ​lucky to be so surrounded by nature. I may not be able to go down to the stream to play Pooh Sticks, but I can sit and watch the clouds and the birds in my garden. The air smells cleaner somehow and there are not many cars and no plane noises, no school busses passing either.

Of course, I'm gardening, planting new life (well it is spring), but I want the wildlife too, so I'm not going to cut it all back and over-manicure my space. There's a balance to be had and boy, do we need balance now if ever we did.

Across the road and up the way there's a standing stone, I go there sometimes and touch it. Sometimes it feels warm and sometimes cold - it depends on the weather. When it's wet it's raining, damp and it is drizzling, if it's whistling and rocking a little it's windy, and if I can't see it then it's foggy. Of course, I won't be leaving the safety of my garden to go there, so I'm going to make my own stone weather indicator and hang it somewhere instead (who needs the weather forecast)?

It's one of those times for feasting, but feasts may be a luxury for a while. I am going to take some onions skins and wrap them around a couple of eggs and tie them tightly with string. Then I'll hard boil them and let them cool. The eggs will pick up the dye from the onion skin and give a really fantastic marbled effect. They'll make great sandwiches too (if Gaynor bakes some bread).

Bonfires are traditional at the equinox. I've already had one in my chimeniere (what a smoke it made). I can't really go to the recycling centre safely so I think that I may be having a few more of them (and sod next doors washing).

I like to have a bit of the outdoors in the house too. I've been buying cut daffodils from the supermarket for weeks but... My tomato plants are greenly on the windowsill growing on, but until my sweet peas have flowered (no bedding this year, the garden centre is shut) I think I may cut some ivy and put it in a vase by the fire.

Spring is that time of renewal and rebirth (as all us cool, deep hippies say) and establishing a new daily routine or rhythm can help ease this transition we are going through (man), maybe even make us feel a little better about things. Doing stuff (from a paper list maybe) provides a bit of a daily framework. Routine and repetition are comforting I find and we are all going to need a bit of both to stop us going stir crazy (or just crazy).

Hey, it ain't so bad. Sitting at home and relaxing is what most people crave most of the time. So why are so many fighting against it now? It can't be helped, but it has to be done.

Stay home, stay well, stay cool.