Day 16 of the 100 day project

I think I went a bit off piste today.  This morning we went to yoga and this afternoon I decided that, before I did anything at all in the garden, I would walk down the track to the river.  Is this part of the 100 day project?  Well sort of.  I am sure that being aware of the seasons is a crucial part of connecting with the garden.  I knew that this is the time for the wood anemones to be out under the trees by the track.  It was sunny and blowy, not particularly warm but bright and breezy and full of spring.

Over the stile, along the top of the scrubby wood and down through the big field.  Everything is greener than it was a week or two ago even if the trees are not yet in leaf.   Moel Arthur, the Iron Age hillfort on the horizon, is crisp and clear against the sky.

The wood anenomes are holding their starry faces to the sun.  They are a slow spreading plant so a woodland with a lot of anemones in it is likely to be an old one.

Down the track to the bottom of the valley and the river is high and fast.  Curious sheep watch me as I walk.  This is an easy walk down but a hard one back up.  I decide that I will do the walk back up the hill without stopping.  Two or three weeks of cold and chest infection have left me a bit slower and a bit weaker than usual but up I go, puffing a bit and with my heart knocking, but not stopping as the track rises steeply back towards our house.

I come back over the stile and the daffodils and the house are shining in the sun.  Use it or lose it, Ian keeps saying about fitness at this stage of our lives, so I have used it and it feels good.  I sit on a bench with a glass of water and a cup of tea.

And then, without marked enthusiasm but with a little knot of determination, I put on my gardening gloves and make a start on one of the raised beds which we did not clear at the end of last year.  I can't say it is much fun, not as good as walking, and I don't finish it, but still, there are dandelions and creeping buttercups on the fire instead of in the bed.  That has to be worth doing.  Day 16.