The Outdoors Parent

We’ve been marvelling for a few days now that the daffodils in the front garden are already in bloom, and that buds are appearing on all the fruit trees. I’ve grown accustomed to the idea that we’re not going to get a proper winter this year and am trying to embrace the first signs of spring.  So this week we put the new annuals in the ground: some beautiful pansies that should bloom right through till summer.  Last year they actually kept going through October.  I do love this spot of early colour in the garden.  It also felt fitting to do this on Valentine’s Day: planting new life and tending the garden the whole family enjoys are surely acts of love.

Popping the pansies in

Watering the garden

This is the second year that The Monkey has been involved in planting the spring flowers and he knew exactly what to do, fetching his trowel and confidently making holes and lowering in the baby flowers.  I love that he’s already getting a sense of how the seasons change and how patterns repeat. It’s steadying for him to know that spring always comes and we always plant the flowers in the same spot, and affirming for me to notice the confidence this experience gives him.  It’s something we all need.  And it seems another defence against the unpredictable, novelty-worshipping culture outside the garden that I find so unhealthy.

Watering baby feet

What are you planting this spring?

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