By rights this should have been out on the 1st, to celebrate St Bride’s day, but I was still in birthday mode, so I didn’t get beyond thinking about it. Today, however, I have seen the sun. It’s raining now, and blooming cold, but the sun was there, and I was out in it pruning roses. The birds knew it was on its way. There’s a robin singing now from three o’clock in the morning, the blue tits and long-tailed tits are all over the damson tree looking for aphids, and the sparrows and starlings are back from wherever they went during the cold weather. Magpies and crows have been quarrelling over nest sites for a couple of weeks and the wood pigeons are knocking each other off the branches of the hazel tree. How wood pigeons haven’t made themselves extinct by now, I can’t imagine.

These are old pictures, because our garden is full of builders and plant. They are levelling our lawn and building a retaining wall, and preparing to build an arbour in our sitooterie full of scented plants and plants for night-flying pollinators.
There are tentative signs of spring about now, though I see we are in for a cold snap next week. There is new foliage on the honeysuckle and the hypericum, and growth on most of the herbs just beginning to show. Witch hazel, snowdrops, primroses and violets are in full bloom and my hellebore seeds have broken their dormancy. It’s early days, but I really think winter is on its way out.

I’m taking this as a sign. The world seems so bleak now, with every day a new revelation about the catastrophes heading our way - the environment, AI, democracy, gender rights, the economy, education, the arts, journalism, the rule of law, international stability, the search for justice, truth, peace, nuclear agreements all under threat. We are all overwhelmed by the threat of darkness, and I see many people in turmoil, wondering what we can do, how to tackle the threats that face us and still keep our own lives together.

I don’t want to be Pollyanna about all this. It’s not for nothing that I think of the President of the US as the AntiChrist. We are in a very bad place indeed. The threat is not technological, or environmental or political, it is existential. But there are signs of returning hope, glimpses of light:
The solid community level non-violent resistance in Minneapolis, just small things like bringing food, blowing whistles, warning neighbours when trouble is heading their way, turning up to witness and complain.
Shipton Mill growing ‘chaos wheat’ from older grains that will withstand some of the upheavals of climate change
Firms like Real Seeds and Seeds of Scotland supplying seeds for crops that you can save to make plants more adapted to your locality.
Palestine Heirloom Seed Library who preserve traditional varieties protecting cultural links to displaced communities.
The Sage’s Cabin podcast, subtitled Herbs and Liberation, where I discovered Haboba’s House, run by a Sudanese woman living in Scotland, who saw photos of her grandmother’s house damaged by civil war, and wanted to fix it. It’s a very small scale charity, which employs local builders, and though the original house is not yet done, they are currently rebuilding a school. My several greats grandmother, according to family tradition, allowed her barn to be used as a hedge school during penal times and women in our family have always been invested in seeing that disadvantaged people get education, so this was a good fit for me.
The Glasgow charity Refuweegee
Independent investigative journalists and news outlets such as Talking Up Scotland, Bylines and Open Democracy.
The Dick Gaughan testimonial, where people demonstrated not only the respect they felt for him, but also a commitment to the values of inclusion and social justice. And as an aside the tender care shown to Martin Carthy, suffering from dementia, not just by his daughter Eliza, but by everyone on the stage. His was a very moving and powerful performance, as though he took a while to settle into what he was doing, once he started his voice and playing was as outstanding as anything I ever heard.
Beavers in Perthshire doing massive flood prevention work.
Omved and Oldlands doing and teaching regenerative farming and gardening.
This is just in the last few weeks, and there’s more I have forgotten. Is it enough? Who knows? But it is happening. No-one needs to worry whether they are doing enough, or doing the right thing. Everything we do is going to help everything else.
In poetry news, plans are afoot for a launch party for Comrades of Dark Night in May, but in the meantime, there is a third reprint of Haggards available. Although that book is eight years old now, it is still selling, much to my delight.
Also my friend Susan Richardson and I are planning an online poetry workshop on the theme of interactions with plants. Sue will talk about houseplants, and I will cover wild ones. This will happen in mid-April, so please watch the blog and website for more details.