Summer, Summer
We are on the threshold of summer now, and the weather is steadily warming up - and about time, too. It hasn’t been quite as wet here as in some places, but spring has seemed very slow to arrive. It was just last week that there was a rush of sap to stem, and all the leaves opened and the perennials bulked up, and the garden became green instead of earthy. Now the greenhouse is full of seedlings, and I have a propagation area just beside it with plants waiting for me to find a space. Daffodils and tulips are over, but the first iris is in flower, a soft white one, and the first rose buds have appeared on the Tuscany Superb - always the first to perform. We found an empty eggshell on the patio yesterday, softly blue and less than two centimetres long, probably a dunnock’s, as I’ve seen a pair growing bolder in the garden this year. Other birds are frantically feeding chicks, trees are putting out blossom and the hedgerows have moved from primrose to cowslip and cuckoo flower.
In the kitchen
We are coming to peak blossom time, and I have high hopes for apples and blackcurrants. The gooseberry and damson haven’t done nearly as well, which is disappointing. There are wild apple trees growing along a lot of roadsides here, and several community orchards, but most of the planting is ornamental cherry, or lime trees. I missed the candying season for primroses and violets, but I am seriously thinking of drinks -harvesting lime flowers for tea. The one I’d really like to make, however, is may blossom cordial. I had some once at a rather strange botanical theatre event, and the taste was rich and sweet and interesting. I’ve seen recommendations for gorse flower syrups too, which might be good, if it tasted as much like coconut as it smells.
Herbs
I have made my first herb harvests, with chives and fines herbes in the freezer, and I’ll be looking for daisies for oil when the grass dries out. You can make a salve for bruises from it, and although bruises don’t usually give much bother, there’s nothing more comforting to a grandchild than having someone put something magic on a bump! For this reason I included daisies (gowans in Scottish) in my Seven Charms booklet.
For grief that bruises
Twine gowan in a chain
about your battered heart
She will make a balm for you,
her golden eyes point you
to where the light will come again.
Writing
I am working steadily on the next poetry collection, which is about halfway there by now. I’ve had several theories about what it might be about, but it looks as if it might deal with the self and the other, solitude and connection, translocation and transformation. It has garden poems in it, poems of the night, ‘shadow’ or ‘outsider’ poems, some political ones and some musings about language and music.
Reading
I’ve been reading two interesting books lately - one is Winters of the World by Eleanor Parker, dealing with the seasons in Old English poetry. It is usually said that Old English poetry is much less aware of nature than, say Celtic poetry, but Parker disputes this, discussing the links between natural phenomena and religious liturgy, or psychological states, and showing how awareness of weather and seasons and the life of the countryside was an integrated component of religious and poetic thinking at the time. This is a theme that really appeals to me!
The other is Windswept by Annie Worsley who lives on a croft in the northwest of Scotland, and recounts the progress of a year through the seasons, the plantlife, the deer and otters, and especially the wind, which shapes the lives and farming practice of the community there.
Events
Finally a plug for an event I’m very excited about - Balloch Open Mic at the Balloch House Hotel Balloch Road, Balloch, G83 8LQ 6th May at 7pm. I’ll be headlining, but there will be a host of local poets and a group from Auchterarder performing too. The Balloch Open Mic sessions have a tremendous reputation, so it should be a great night.
I hope Spring is good to you!