Issue #66 The Misc. Adventures Digest
Is spring finally on the horizon?
It is Friday evening. I carefully arrange kindling on the stove grate and carve feathers of shavings as tinder. I strike a match and watch as flames build and the orange glow consumes the darkness inside the stove. I leave the door ajar and head outside to fetch logs from the wood store. The wind outside is abrasive and the air damp, I hunch my shoulders, trying to retreat inward and away from the discomfort. An armful of logs is enough and I scurry back inside. I am unusually disorganised with firewood. Normally there is plenty in the house, but then it is the middle of April and we hardly expect to be relying so heavily on the warmth of wood by now.
It has been another wet grey day. Spring jobs need doing, but the mud and damp is making everything too difficult. Outside one minute and inside dodging showers the next.
Me and Emma ask each other - when will it end? We calculate 5 perhaps 6 days of sun since Christmas. Surely there is something we can do? Can we write an official letter of complaint? I want a refund on the last 4 months.
Spring things are happening regardless. The days are longer - though not necessarily brighter - and plant life is responding accordingly. Blackthorn blossom is foaming in hedgerows and the great greening of woods is well underway, but we are missing the bulk of the seasonal changes as we huddle indoors and peer through windows at the driving wind and rain hoping for signs of change. We are advocates for wet weather walking, but there is a limit to how many days of hardship you can invest without at least a few easier days in return.
Work is tough. By now there have usually been a few days of lightness. The slog of winter behind us, we roll up our sleeves and feel the warmth on our forearms as we work in the sun accompanied by a soundtrack of returning chiff chaffs and blackcaps. We may laugh and joke and pause to notice Nature’s work. Sit with our backs against tree trunks and the sun on our faces as we eat lunch. This year, winter prevails and we continue to trudge through mud and grapple with slippery tools. We take short lunch breaks and hope for early finishes. I speak to a land manager on one of the sites we are working on - he has been working outside for 30 years, this is the worst winter he can remember.
When you have arranged your entire life around spending time in Nature, the weather affects everything. The practical challenges thrown up by the relentlessness of wind and rain have proved insurmountable in some cases. We have had to cancel workshops, shelve plans and scale back ambition. Our capacity for seeking joy is much reduced; the places we usually go to find it are weather-beaten and bleak. The rivers are too swollen to swim in and the lakes too windswept.
On the rare brighter days, we can feel ourselves unfurling, emerging from the darkness like green tender shoots emerging from the soil for the first time. But no sooner have we stretched up towards the sun, we are beaten back down by wind and gloom and we retreat back inside of ourselves.
I envy those who can afford to take holidays. They have the chance to break the cycle. Even a few days somewhere else would be enough. I ask myself why it is that some have this luxury and others do not. The bad weather makes it too easy to dwell on the apparent meanness of life.
Today is Monday. The sky is brighter but the wind howls down the chimney and a spiteful mix of snow and fat raindrops splat against the window with force. 50mph winds are forecast and weather warning is in place.
The one comfort in all this, is that we know how easily a few consecutive days of spring sunshine can erase a whole winter of darkness.
This morning, The Met Office issued a press release: “After what feels like weeks and indeed months of wind and rain, there is some good news on the horizon.”
Can it be true? We are almost afraid to look forward to better days - too many times we have been promised good things that have failed to materialise. It has become a consistent theme that we wish we could scrub from our story.
Yet somehow, we have to believe good news is always on the horizon, to allow ourselves to dream and be open to opportunity, to let the light penetrate the gloom.
Is spring finally on the way? Here’s hoping…
Well, that’s all for this week. Sorry for the lack of post last week, we have had a lot going on! Where ever you are and whatever you’re doing, we hope lighter days are just on the horizon.
With warmest wishes,
Andrew, Emma and Benji
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I'm hoping for the best for you guys!