Well, lots and lots. The weather has taken a turn for the better, so I've been out in the garden and have, *gasp* mowed our lawn! It was warm enough for that! I have seen two bees today, large bumbles, our first of the season, still sleepily flying into things, like me in the morning ;-) The daffs too, and narcissi are both coming up, the wee nodding heads of the buttercup-yellow narcissi have flowered and are sat out in their trough just like Wordsworth's poem "I Wondered Lonely As A Cloud";

I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Then, last weekend, my mother came up and spent a very pleasant 3 days up here, sampling all that Northumberland has to offer (which included local Jersey-milk cheese, rare-breed middle-white sausages - both from the farmers market - and my own home cooking!), although in all the time she was here there was not one sign of a red squirrel anywhere! The little devils were all sat cosy in their dreys, out of the rain, refusing to be looked-at. Of course, the moment mum was gone, they reappeared at the bottom of the garden, a cheeky brassy-red baby and an older, much larger, deep blood-red male (I think) sat in the hawthorn bush and proceeded to scoff peanuts until he probably had a very sore tummy.

Mum didn't come empty-handed either (does she ever?!), she brought us a wonderful wardrobe and chest of drawers (from a friend of hers - recycling in action!), these were important as we really don't have much storage space at all in this house. So part of the weekend was spent assembling those back into their 3D forms, and of course, filling them with stuff. The art room is now much nicer with the addition of the drawers, only a couple of ghastly boxes now! Which has made me feel all the more in the mood to get down and do some arty stuff, yielding one rather nice lino print, and another one in the works, all the while Nag Champa incense was burning, the windows thrown open with wreckless abandon, and the heating turned completely off! This spring malarkey is great, washing is out on the line, it doesn't get dark until after 7pm, and it's starting to warm up a bit. This does, however, highlight a problem, which is, I really must get the veg seeds planted, but I seem to be having gardeners-block and not being able to practice what I preach... I do hope for a remedy soon, in the form of some nice sunny days in which to get it all done. Then I will officially be able to claim that it really is the start of Spring and all's well with the world at last!