Winter to Spring.

Hibernation lasted a little longer than I had first planned and 5 months have slipped past in a quiet whisper in our small corner.

We felt winter intensely but briefly, with the early snow of December soon giving way to grey January days and more surprisingly to early March sunshine and an April heat wave. This ridiculously early summer called for a celebration of butternut squash and white chocolate cupcakes and rose macaroons - not exactly seasonal but delightful all the same.

There have been worryingly few April showers in our part of the world and as I potter about the garden I notice the full extent of the uneven seasons as I watch my rocket and sorrel bolting, behaving as if it is already August. Scientific precision would be a little boring when it comes to the seasonal cycle but a touch of regularity would greatly aid my veggie crops and my water consumption - the hose has already had a fair few outings, a luxury which I usually reserve until late May.

While I am busy sowing rotational batches of seed, filling all corners of our petite flat, there have already been a few triumphs. My first ever forced rhubarb made an early appearance - and a rather nice rhubarb and orange cake which was consumed rather too quickly to allow time for a photograph, no doubt there will be further opportunities...

For the cooler evenings, I have been using the vegetables in our Growing Communities bag for warming soups while I wait for my own spring crops to flourish. For a thai-inspired carrot soup: heat a generous splash of olive oil in a wide bottomed saucepan. Once hot add 2tsp coriander seeds for 2 mins then add garlic and ginger, roughly chopped, adjusting amounts to your taste. After 2 mins add scrubbed and roughly chopped carrots, approx 2lbs, to the pan and sweat with a lid on for 10 mins on a medium heat. Add enough vegetable stock to just cover the carrots then simmer gently for a further 20 mins. Take the soup off the heat, cool and liquidise. Return soup to a medium heat, melting a good chunk of creamed coconut into the soup, adding the juice of a freshly squeezed lime or two and seasoning with salt and pepper. Once heated through, serve garnished with chopped coriander leaves.


Let me not complete this long overdue post without acknowledging the trigger for my picking up camera and keyboard once again - Foxy has returned.


Having seen no sign of our favourite wild mammal since his snowy footprints in the dead of winter, he appeared in our garden this week as though nothing has ever been amiss. He had been scared off, I assume, by a fox death in the adjacent no man's land - possibly his mate - and the overzealous clearing and bonfires of some of our neighbours. However this week he arrived back in his usual spot - sitting on the lawn as though no time at all had passed, waiting for me to finish the day's digging so he could salvage any unearthed worms. Following his lead - I return as if no time at all has passed to my small corner blog, hoping we will both last a little longer this time.

We will have an interesting summer to share if Whiskey the guard-cat has anything to do with it...