BLOWN AWAY BY SPRING

YES, spring completely blew me away. To such an extent that I was running around the garden and even across the fields like a lunatic. Spring was constantly nudging me ‘look at this and look at that’, giving not a second of peace and quiet. I could not eat or sleep. When the night fell I would not go indoors - I wanted to make my bed in the garden by the first daffodil bud and keep a vigil throughout the night.

Thank God, all has settled down now: the fresh, the lush, the busy and the noisy have become a routine… Exuberance has become the norm: the lilac bush by my window is in full bloom, the white of the viburnum flowers is becoming more intense by the day; late tulips and narcissi are still holding strong; starling babies are bawling and squalling with all their baby might. Their stressed parents are hurrying to silence them with big fat chafer grubs – I see those grubs in their beaks as they fly to and fro in front of my window.

Once outside the micro-cosmos of my garden, I find myself in a much more spacious cosmos of fields and forests, where ‘the fresh, the lush, the busy and the noisy’ are spread across a vast expanse of… nature itself. It’s much quieter here, not like in my garden, were spring is concentrated in a tiny spot. Here spring unfolds unhurriedly and looks more reserved, more somber, more thoughtful. Unlike garden birds, forest birds are much more cautious and their little ones stay hushed in well-hidden nests – they are so much better behaved. Wild beasts, too, teach their offspring to stay quiet. And as you walk in the forest, you hear nothing but the rustle of leaves, the flutter of wings of an occasional bird, the snap of a dry twig somewhere behind you as a deer, who has sensed your presence, makes up his mind and turns back.

Tiny unassuming forest flowers – the epitome of modesty – they too hasten to flower while the spring light lasts. Once the spring is over, all the gaps in the forest will be filled in by dense foliage and then it will be time to ripen the fruit in the dark.

Spring is not about waiting. Spring is about living every single moment, with all your senses wide open.