So the Groundhog has spoken. It's another six weeks of winter. Oh, terrific! We may be a long way from Pennsylvania, but it would seem, that, right now, rural Derbyshire is twinned with Punxsutawney.
February is a vampire of a month, that totally sucks the life out of you. Summer feels less like a different season than a different geological age. But ... things are stirring. Mooching around the village on Sunday, I spotted my first crocus in bloom, and even in the freezing drizzle, it did cheer me up, for oooh, five minutes.
I'm in the office, as I write this, looking out on yet another grey, sodden day, but I'm already in the planning stages for projects that will come to fruition in July and August. The days will be longer and warmer, then - please let them be drier! - and I'll have totally forgotten why I was so downbeat and grouchy, when spring was just around the corner.
'Onwards and upwards!' I tell myself. Today I am officially launching this new website.
After that, as night falls, I'm going to wassail our medlar tree. It seemed to appreciate being soused with alcohol and sung to, last year, and rewarded us with a magnificent harvest of fruit, so, daft though it feels, I'm going to freak out the neighbours and do it again.
And there's the moral of the story, I suppose. Do the work in winter, ignore the vampire, and 'future you' will thank you when the sun is high in the sky.
Enjoy the website...
