Spring Indoors

There's nothing more lovely than the start of spring. We've passed the 1st March, the official start of spring according to the Met Office and also the Spring Equinox, so spring is well and truly underway.  The daffodils are out in full force, tulips and bluebells are bursting through ready to follow and many spring garden plants like the forsythia, are either blooming or preparing to bloom. 

The weather is always so changeable in spring though, with warm sunny days where you can be outdoors and enjoy the garden and the birdsong to cold, wet, windy and even snowy days where it's not as easy to be outdoors for too long. This is why I love to have some plants and flowers indoors, to both cheer up the house on those changeable spring days and to reflect a little of the outside indoors. 

I find spring flowers so cheerful and uplifting and love filling vases of daffodils and tulips to spread a little spring cheer around the house. I also love orchids and colourful plants in the conservatory which add to the array of spring colours and make the conservatory a bright and sunny extension of the garden. 

Spring Bouquets

I always love to have flowers around the house at all times of year - they can brighten up those gloomy days and dismal corners whatever the weather is doing. Spring time is always a lovely time of year to have some flowers dotted around the house - they can compliment and echo the early spring flowers that are blooming outside and bring the two together. Indoor flowers in spring are always a reminder of all that's to bloom and grow outside very soon. 

It's been especially busy in our household as I've recently launched my very first book, 'Life is for the Living' and then my book launch was closely followed by Mother's Day and Easter, so there's been lots of celebrating and I seem to have been thoroughly spoiled by friends and family during March with some very beautiful bouquets of flowers. 

The colours, mix of flowers and scents have been really be stunning: pale pink roses, carnations and lilies; deep blue hyacinths and brilliant golds; mixes of greens and pale peach roses and deep purples of verbena, bright pink gerberas and carnations offset with whites. 

My book 'Life is for the Living' is available on Amazon - £8.99 for a paperback and £3.99 for a Kindle version - all proceeds are for charities that have supported me through my heart and double lung transplant. The link is below: 

Amazon - Life is for the Living

Daffodils

I love it when the first snowdrops appear in late January and February - they represent the idea of the warmer weather and colours of spring approaching. But it's the daffodils that always signal the longer days and give the hint that soon we may have sunshine and warmth at last. I think it's to do with the vibrant bright yellows of their flowers - their fresh looking faces shining bright in borders, lawns and pots. A scattering of spring everywhere - even if it's cold and wet still - a sign saying 'yes' the sun will be out soon; 'yes' it will be warmer! 

I was wondering what may happen with the daffodils this spring as some had flowered before Christmas in some parts of the country and there were some blooming in January in our garden and in the park behind us. I thought they all may be out far too early and be spoiled by snow and frost, but they are out in force now in March as usual, perhaps a little early, but still making their usual splendid show. 

I can't help but think of the poem - probably my favourite one - Wordsworth's 'I wandered 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.