SNOWDROPS: SIGN OF LIFE
Blog by Susie Bedford
(pen name, writing poetry and fantasy:Lynne Pearl)
FEBRUARY 23
SPRING
It starts with one snowdrop. It means this is the start of something new. It’s a sea change in all we have seen so far. I have seen pictures of snowdrops in shop windows but that doesn’t count. Only the real thing and preferably wild, small snowdrops count. Then I wait for some more. If there is one, there are more.
RIVER THAMES
Time passes and then suddenly there are large ones on the side of the road on the way to Pangbourne by the River Thames. There are clumps in the sunshine (cold sunshine at that), but this Berkshire, it must be warmer as there are more snowdrops here than at home. Snowdrops are a sign of the time. They give hope, even while one still has cold feet.
DEVON
In Devon we wait. And look. Then one day there are some beside the road, on a tussock of grass where the road rises up to Dunkeswell, in the area of the Blackdown Hills (a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, A.O.N.B.)
The tiny local bus pulls on uphill and beside the road there is a sign that says, ‘Snowdrop Tea’ at Coombe Raleigh church. This must be a fund- raising event for the church and someone has snowdrops in their garden or on their land and one can walk among snowdrops and then take tea in the afternoon. Beautiful. Mum went to see a garden in Higher Exeter that specialised in varieties of snowdrops and hellebores. It had flowers when others were fast asleep. We had tea there too. It was lovely, Mum enjoyed them, she loved all flowers.
This is a snowdrop bus journey and at St Mary’s church, Hemyock in a corner of the church yard against a very old stone wall at the foot of a tree there is a large patch of snowdrops.
We proceed on our way and at Culmstock there are more snowdrops at the foot of a hedge. They are like dots of light.
Later, another day in Somerset, there are snowdrops in an ancient apple orchard in Street.
It is snowdrop season and Spring is on its way.
THE EARTH’S BOUNTY
The earth’s bounty:
Peony pots
Rhododendron blossoms
Falling to earth
Such riches
Laying in the grass
For all to come and take.
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